"People often believe things as they hear about computers & Internet. Let me clear your concepts by answering some of the misconceptions."

Hacker:-
Hacker is a person highly skilled in a particular technology or someone who knows its architecture. Moreover, a hacker is able to debug the technology as he/she is aware of all the minute details of it. This extent of the knowledge about certain technology can be used in either good or bad way. A hacker can exploit the vulnerabilities of that technology to cause damage to the person using it or he/she can debug it to make it secure and reliable.

People usually use the term 'hacker' for the person who hacks the computers to gain unauthorized access. This concept is purely wrong because that particular person may be a 'criminal hacker' or a 'script kiddy' but every Hacker is not necessarily a criminal.

Next time you have a problem with programming, managing network or troubleshooting any technology, make sure you get the best hacker on job.

Windows 98 vs. XP:-
A large number of computer newbies (and sadly some professionals too), believe that Windows 98 is the best operating system on the face of earth and so they won't upgrade to Windows XP. I'm here to help you out understand why they are wrong (Yeah I know you're not one of them).

1. Windows XP is 10 times more reliable than Windows 98.
2. Windows 98 has more security holes than Windows XP.
3. Windows XP does not hang and give you blue nagging screens as often as Windows 98 does.
4. Windows XP has better support for graphics than Windows 98.
5. Microsoft does not even provide technical support for Windows 98 anymore.

Do me a favor. Open up www.google.com and type in 'Windows 98 vs Windows XP' in search text box. Press enter and browse the result pages. See if you can find any argument supporting windows 98.

Virus:-
Very often I hear people saying “There is virus at large
floating on the net on blah blah date so I'm going to turn off my PC that day and won't go online because if I do; my mother board will be set on fire”. Now give me a break! There's got to be a difference between a computer virus and a fish in the sea. Virus can not just float into your PC if you don't drag it in. Its always you installing the infected software, opening executable attachments and putting in infected disks to your drives. Virus doesn't walk into your hard drive on its own.

There are viruses but only “IF” they are residing on your computer “Then” they will trigger at particular date and cause harm to your system data but that's only in case they “Exist” on your hard drive. If you have an antivirus installed on your PC you won't have that virus on your computer in first place.

Now almost every computer user knows that he or she needs to have an antivirus software installed on the PC but most of them still don't install one. If you don't have bucks in your pocket you can always get the free ones like AVG Antivirus.

Now let's not confuse this with getting hacked. If your computer is vulnerable and not updated with patches you can get hacked any time and any virus can be penetrated into your drive without you even knowing about it. This is what worms do; they use the vulnerabilities in your system to penetrate in. So if you are updated with all the patches available then there is a better chance that you're safe unless there is a new vulnerability discovered, for which patch is not yet available and for such kind of attacks you don't get fixed date announcements (Home users specially).

Dialup:-
Some people happen to believe that no matter how many websites they browse or how many files they download simultaneously the data will just flow right in and when the things slow down they start bashing their ISP. Oh God mercy! People there is a limit to how much data you can download/upload per second depending upon what connection you have. Typically a dialup user gets an average 4-6 kbps download per second in Pakistan. Increasing your RAM or processor speed does not affect your internet browsing speed. This may affect the speed at which your browser window opens but not the speed at which the website loads or a file downloads. To my surprise, some people go even further and try to reach the height of stupidity when they actually restart the system for the purpose or simply right click on their Windows desktop and click the 'refresh' button again and again.

Ping:-
Some computer uncles teach the newbies that if their internet connection goes idle and browsing stops working then the mighty Ping command will save their life. Wake up guys!! Ping?? Ok I'll explain what this command does. You see every data that travels over your connection is in the form of packets. That supposedly 'mighty Ping' command only sends a few packets to the IP/Hostname and sees if it returns a response. So? That means you're trying to send another couple of packets through a connection which already doesn't seem to work. Pinging an IP and browsing a website are entirely different things in respect of protocol so only thing you can know besides a computer existence on internet is that if your connection lets you reach that IP but this command in no way can change the state of your connection from 'not working' to 'working' or from 'slow' to 'fast'.

The writer is a Software Engineering student and a professional programmer from Islamabad. He is the creator of Gilly Messenger, SMS Messenger and many cool applications. He can be reached at hasan.khan@itinsight.info