Viber: Free Calls, Messaging and Sharing on Your Cellphone

Make free calls and send free messages to any device that has Viber, on any network! Viber is a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging voice-over-Internet Protocol application for smartphones. In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, video and audio media messages. The client software is available for Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Series 40, Symbian, Bada and Windows Phone.Viber works on both 3G and WiFi networks. All you need is a 3G or WiFi connection and you can connect with other Viber users anywhere! You can call your friends and family in the U.S. or anywhere else too.

For Android Phones:
http://www.viber.com/#android
http://www.viber.com/products/android/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.viber.voip

For Windows Phones:
http://www.viber.com/#windowsphone
http://www.viber.com/products/windowsphone/
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/viber-messenger/f4631757-d1f6-4727-bd65-e6bc6c8e35da

For Nokia Phones:

http://www.viber.com/#nokia

For Blackberry Phones:
http://www.viber.com/#blackberry

For iOS Phones:

http://www.viber.com/#iphone

For Bada Phones:
http://www.viber.com/#bada

How to get started with Viber video:

Viber looks and feels just like your regular phone, so you won’t have to waste any time figuring it out. The sound quality though is much better than a regular call. Viber uses your phone number as your "identity" and lets you make free Viber phone calls to any of your friends that have Viber - using THEIR phone number. Once you've downloaded Viber, you will receive an Access Code via SMS or via callback to activate Viber. The Access Code ensures that you are the real owner of the cellphone number you have registered and prevents others from obtaining your Access Code and placing calls with your caller ID. Viber uses your device's address book to automatically tag who has Viber in your contact list and it's always synced. If you don't have 3G you can still use Viber via WiFi. 

Viber works on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android devices, with some exceptions. They've tested Viber for Android on various devices. The complete list can be found here:

http://helpme.viber.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/45/10/is-your-android-compatible-with-viber-system-requirements

The following is from http://www.viberfaq.com/what-devices-are-not-supported/:

Here is a list of currently not supported devices or systems by Viber.

iPhone 2g - Probably because of Edge only internet connection.

Android OS less than 2.0

Android Tablets - They are not supported but a friend of mine has a Samsung Galaxy Tab with WI-FI only and Viber works just fine on this device. I’m sure that in the near future we will have a list of tablet devices on which Viber works OK.

Motorola Flipout - Although it comes with Android 2.1, it is not officially supported, and judging by users’ reports, it seems that it doesn’t work.

HTC Wildfire, HTC Hero - For some time, Viber was unavailable for download from Market for those two devices. Now they are available, but still known as problematic.

Note on Jailbroken iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch - They are supported, but the Jailbreak interferes with Push Notifications mechanism and this causes problems in terms of Viber’s functionality.

Note on Android devices which can not download Viber from Market - If you cannot download Viber from Android Market (e.g. HTC Hero), you can try to download and install it directly from viber.com. You can find more info and a guide here: http://helpme.viber.com/index.php/Knowledgebase/Article/View/100/16/cant-download-from-android-market

The following is from http://helpme.viber.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/18/6/iphone-what-is-viber-and-is-viber-really-free:

Viber to Viber calls or messages are absolutely free when selecting the Viber badge in your Viber contact list or the button which says 'Free Call' or 'Free Message' within the contact info of your Viber contact list. Viber does not charge your carrier nor Viber users.  Calls or messages placed from Viber to "non Viber users" will go through your local cell phone provider like a regular cell call. Once you and your friends download Viber you can talk freely, locally and internationally, and these calls will not show up on your phone bill.
All you need is an Internet connection: 3G or WiFi wherever available (3G may incur operator data charges or internet access fees. Check with your 3G provider to see your 3G plan). The bandwidth rate during a Viber call is approximately 240 KB per minute / 14 MB per hour.
If the party you are calling doesn't have an active internet connection or has their Viber application turned off when you call, the call will time out, and once the person reconnects to the internet, or once the person opens the Viber application, they will receive your missed call notification or the text message you've sent.  Viber will not automatically divert to your regular GSM (cell phone provider) service.
If you try to place a Viber call to a user who doesn’t yet have Viber, you will receive a warning message that the call is going to be placed as a regular paid call, or you can choose to invite the contact. This way, you can choose if you still want to place a paid call through your device's phone application or not.  Always use your Viber contact list to see who has Viber...

There is also a Viber for PC:
http://www.viberforpc.com/

Download it here:
http://www.viberforpc.com/viber-for-pc-give-viber-free-calls/

Go here on more instructions on how to download it:
http://www.freecallshub.com/2012/09/video-tutorial-download-viber-phone-app-windows-pc/


Viber doesn't contain any annoying ads.

Socware: Facebook Malware Alert

Be very careful when you are on Facebook. Danger lurks there. Let the article below serves as a warning to you:

How To Fight "Socware" - Malware On Facebook And Other Social Networks

DAVE COPELAND

OCTOBER 16TH, 2012

From: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how-to-fight-socware-malware-on-facebook-and-other-social-networks.php

Engineering professors and graduate students at University of California-Riverside have coined a new term to describe malware distributed on social networks, but they didn't stop there: They also developed an app to fight it.
"Socware" – pronounced "sock-where" - describes all criminal and parasitic behavior on Facebook and other online social networks (SOCial-WARE, get it?). But the term may be secondary news compared to the researchers released, which they claim stopped 97% of all socware while blocking legitimate messages only 0.005% of the time. 

A white paper outlines the study, which included 12,000 people who had installed the MyPageKeeper app and their collective 2.4 million friends. All-in-all, the study analyzed more than 40 million messages sent on Facebook.

The researchers, who described socware as an escalating arms race between scam artists and Internet security firms, said traditional blacklists, which have been used to block malware in email, have become ineffective as more communication has moved onto platforms like Facebook. They also found an increase in malware programs that hijacked accounts for the paid liking services I wrote about last month.

"Facebook is becoming the new epicenter of the Web, and we showed that hackers are adapting to this change by designing new types of malware suited to this platform, which we call socware," they wrote.

A Sucker Born Every Minute

Seasoned and even ordinary Internet users are often left wondering "Who the hell would fall for that?" For example, MyPageKeeper researchers analyzed the data in their study and found:

• Only 54% of socware messages included URLs that had been shortened using a link shortener. The researchers had expected the number to be higher, as shortened links can hide suspicious-looking URLs - but apparaently suspicious URLs don't bother some users.

• Of the un-shortened URLs, the scammers often used what the researchers called "obviously fake domain names," including  http://iphonefree5.com and http://nfljerseyfree.com.

• Certain words should be warning signs for users: "OMG," for example, was 332 times more likely to appear in a socware status update, while the word "bank" was 56 more times likely to appear in socware messages.

Anyone who clicks on a suspect link is vulnerable, but Facebook seems to be the chosen stomping ground for socware criminals. About one in five of the socware links were hosted on Facebook itself, and thousands of socware messages were sent through the network everyday.

Facebook declined comment, saying it does not comment on third-party reports and papers.

"Malware on Facebook seems to be hosted and enabled by Facebook itself," Michalis Faloutsos, a professor of computer science and engineering, said in a statement "It's a classic parasitic kind of behavior. It is fascinating and sad at the same time." 

OMG! You can take this to the bank anytime!...Oh wait this is NOT a prank even though I used the words "OMG" and "bank". :). It isn't unusual to spot at least one Facebook post in your feed that goes "OMG OMG see this video.. WOW!" Does this fake excitement statement trick fool anyone anymore? A little common sense with a hint of awareness is enough to tell you that the content is malware-ridden. When I see a statement like that my first reaction is to delete the post or the email. I guess I've been a moderator and owner of forums and Yahoo groups too long. I take statements like that with a healthy dose of skepticism.

MyPageKeeper is a free application that detects spam and malware on users’ Facebook walls. It is highly accurate, cheap (FREE!!) and fast. In the future, the researchers are considering allowing MyPageKeeper to remove malicious posts automatically.

Changing your Windows password

Click Start and in the Start Search (bottom entry box) type cmd.
On top of the menu, rightclick cmd.exe and choose "Run as administrator."

Then write this command:
net user
The command will display a list of usernames which can access the computer.
Then type this command using the username whose password you want to change or bypass:
net user username *
Make sure you put a space between the star and username.
You will be prompted to enter a new password. If you leave it blank the command will erase your current password.
Then hit Enter twice to remove or change your password.