A FLOP refers to the number of floating point operations per second that a computer processor can accomplish. The floating point method is used for current measures of computer performance vice the legacy instructions per second due to the greater precision required by the CPU to execute the more scientific instruction. A petaflop is the measure of a computer processor's speed expressed in the thousand trillion floating point operations per second or one quadrillion operations per second. As a baseline reference, the average calculator just needs to be capable of Read More

Mfefire.exe is McAfee Anti-virus Firewall Service’s process. The McAfee Firewall prevents malicious programs from installing themselves or third party components on the computer. Mfefire.exe is not a system process, but is required to run the McAfee Firewall. Mfefire.exe generally runs on the Windows Operating System and can be found in the primary hard drive’s Program Files folder.   How Mfefire.exe Works Mfefire.exe runs in the computer background and, when activated, prevents programs from running and/or installing themselves on the computer without permission. It detects processes as they attempt to run, Read More

The Master Blaster virus is a malicious program that was developed from the initial Blaster worm. It was repackaged by Jeffrey Lee Parson during 2003. It was also released to infect computers running on MS Windows OS versions across the globe during the same year. The repackaged or reprogrammed Master Blaster virus was then known as Blaster B or LovSan. This variant of the Master Blaster virus exploited known vulnerabilities of MS Windows OS versions. This activity was similar to other known variants of the Master Blaster Virus. Upon infection, Read More

A common problem that Windows Vista users face is getting the “COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working” error message whenever a folder that contains multimedia or video files is opened. COM components that third party applications that are not fully compatible with the Windows Vista (and other versions of the Windows platform) install normally cause this error. Some applications that have been known to cause the error include DivX and Nero. There are a number of solutions that have been found to solve the error depending on the specific build of Read More

Understanding the ISA Server Reporting Feature ISA Server includes a reporting feature that you can use for a number of purposes: Use reports to obtain and view information on usage statistics of the server for both computers and client users. Create your own reports. Each report here consists of a number of sub-reports, taking the form of charts and graphs. This concept is illustrated on the 2nd page of the Article: The predefined ISA Server reports are listed here: Summary reports: These reports combine data from the Firewall service log Read More

Mixing heat and a laptop can be a detriment to the survivability of the laptop. With desk tops, there are many fans to handle the excess heat that builds up. However, with laptops, this is not the case because the space is restricted. In other words, there are fewer fans and less space for the heat to go, so it sits and begins to heat up the different components of the laptop such as the hard drive, memory and mother board. Monitoring the temperature of the laptop ensures that it Read More

A satellite finder is a specialized signal-strength meter used to point satellite dishes and LNBs. There are two general classes of satellite finders: analog and digital satellite finders. Analog Satellite Finder Most analog satellite finders are inexpensive devices which simply display the strength of the received signal. To use an analog satellite finder, you point the satellite dish and LNB to where you believe the satellite to be. You then take a reading on the satellite finder and adjust the satellite dish and LNB until you get the strongest reading Read More

PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure and represents a wide array of devices,  software, agencies and protocols that create and control electronic certificates. Some PKI systems are used for registration methods and keeping track of users. For example, when a game manufacturer sells you a copy of their game, you will be asked to fill out a form with your personal information to help the company form an idea of what kind of people are buying their game. The game may also require you to enter a serial number to Read More

Over the last couple of years video has become a staple of the internet. Not only have computers become more powerful and equipped to handle video images, but many websites now rely on video as either a source of entertainment or a way to transmit information. One of the most popular video files found on the Internet is called FLV. FLV stands for Flash Video. It should be noted that Flash Video is a proprietary file that was created by Macromedia, now under Adobe. Flash files are commonly used all Read More

Active Directory security is determined by the following components: * Security groups: A security group is a made up of a set of users, and is created to assign permissions to access resources, and to assign user rights to group members. Permissions control access to resources, while user rights define what actions users can perform. Security groups are considered security principal accounts because they can contain user accounts. It is the security principal accounts that are used in authentication and access control. The security settings of a security principal account Read More