How to fix gaming mouse problem in Vista 32/64

I have seen many people saying that  Vista is not suitable for gaming purposes. It is not really true. I have been using vista from  March 2007 and all of my games worked perfectly in it. Vista surely have lots of compatibility issues but most of the problems can be fixed. One of the most serious issues the vista gamers facing is gaming mouse incompatibility. Updating drivers  or firmwire won't help in any case. Serveral top brand gaming mouses such as Razer Lachesis, Razer DeathAdder, Logitech G5, Logitech G9, Microsoft Sidewinder, Microsoft Habu, Cyber Snipa, Steelseries Ikari, etc have similar kind of problems such as macros not working or side button not working in games.

This problem is caused by UAC(User Access Control) component in Vista. UAC is a security component in vista which limit application software to standard user privileges until an administrator authorizes an increase in privilege level. It help to prevent malware programs from gaining system access. Not only malware but all the applications and drivers are affected by this. This is the reason for gaming mouse problem. It can be fixed by disabling UAC as I've explained below.

How to disable UAC?
1. First click on start button and type "msconfig" and press enter. UAC will ask for permission, click on continue.


2. Select Tools tab. In that, select "Disable UAC" and click on Launch button.


3. Finally restart vista to make it work.

Note: If you want to re-enable UAC then do the similar steps and use "Enable UAC" instead of "Disable UAC".

The pointer for a gaming mouse does not move correctly in Windows Vista
This is another commonly seen issue in vista.
You may experience the following problems in Windows Vista when you use a high performance gaming mouse, and you enable the Enhanced Pointer Precision option:
• The pointer does not move correctly when you move the mouse down and to the right side.
• The pointer moves by itself.
• The pointer movement is irregular.

Download fix for pointer problem here:
Windows6.0_KB932653_x86.msu (32-bit)
Windows6.0_KB932653_x64.msu (64-bit)

Intel names new chip Core i7

Intel Corp said it plans to sell its new generation of chips for desktop computers under the established Core brand, with the first chips of the new line to be called Core i7.

The microprocessors are based on a design the company has code-named Nehalem and are expected to be in production the last three months of this year. Intel says the new design will deliver both high performance and energy efficiency.


Sporting anywhere between two and eight processors cores, the first chips will integrate a memory controller and come with Intel's QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) which is expected to provides a faster route for the CPU to communicate with system components such as a graphics card.



Some new technologies in Core i7

• Dynamic scalability, managed cores, threads, cache, interfaces, and power for energy-efficient performance on demand.
• Design and performance scalability for server, workstation, PC, and mobile demands with support for 2-8+ cores and up to 16+ threads with simultaneous multi-threading (SMT), and scalable cache sizes, system interconnects, and integrated memory controllers.
• Simultaneous multi-threading brings high-performance applications into mainstream computing with 1-16+ threads optimized for a new generation multi-core processor architecture.
• Scalable shared memory of Intel QuickPath technology features memory distributed to each processor with integrated memory controllers and high-speed point-to-point interconnects to unleash the performance of next-generation Intel® multi-core processors.
• Multi-level shared cache improves performance and efficiency by reducing latency to frequently used data.

Intel is expected to add other identifiers to the Core i7 name as it launches products in the range. It is also expected to identify its high-end "Extreme Edition" parts with a black logo. Intel's Core i7 will be available in market by Q4 2008. Intel is also expected to release its laptop range of processors, based on the Nehalem, in the second half of 2009.

Samsung to ship ultra fast 256GB SSD Drive

Samsung plans to launch a flash memory based solid state disk(SSD) drive this year that has a 256GB capacity and a high speed SATA II interface. The drive's dimension match those of a standard 2.5 inch hard disk drive; it's designed to be a drop-in replacement for a laptop hard drive.

Solid state disk drives use a flash memory chips in place of spinning magnetic disks that hard disk drives use. The chips make the drives sturdier and faster but the per gigabyte cost is much higher too.

Samsung's is the second recently announced 256GB SSD drive. The other from US based Super Talent, is thicker than Samsung's, at 12.5 millimeters compared to Samsung's 9.5millimeters. That drive has a SATA I interface with read speed of 65mbps(megabits per second) and write speed of 50mbps. Samsung's SSD drive has a read speed of 200mbps and a sequential write speed of 160mbps.


Rather than use costly single-level cell (SLC) technology, the company has managed to develop a multi-level cell (MLC) storage drive that transfers as quickly as the best SLC storage while costing much less to produce than past SSDs. Improvements to the storage controller have also extended the longevity to as long as SLC drives, giving the 256GB drive longevity as good or better than some rotating hard disks. Power consumption is also exceptionally low at 0.9 watts in active mode.

In addition, the drive offers a sophisticated data encryption process that prevents data stored on the SSD from being accessed in an unauthorized manner, even after the SSD is removed from the PC.

Once introduced, the Samsung's 256GB SSD will mark the largest capacity SSD from the global market leader in SSD sales, effectively eliminating density as a barrier to SSD adoption in the consumer space. Samsung expects its new drive to be sampling for computer manufacturers by September and shipping to those clients by the end of the year; this applies to both a 2.5-inch drive for more traditional notebooks and a 1.8-inch drive for ultraportables and other much smaller devices. Costs haven't yet been announced.

Tweaking maximum half-open connection limit in XP and Vista

Microsoft has set limits for number of concurrent TCP connection attemps in WIndows, in order to protect users from malicious bots, spyware etc. Normal users will not face any problems. But the p2p applications such as BitTorrent(uTorrent, BitComent, Azureus, etc), Limewire, eMule, Sopcast, TVants and some multiplayer games (mainly P2P games) may face some slow download and upload speed due to this limit.

Registry tweaks doesn't work. They set those limits in TCPIP.SYS and other system files which need to be patched. Following explains how to patch your Windows XP and Windows Vista versions.

Windows XP
Original Windows XP & XP SP1 doesn't have any limits. But since XP SP2, only 10 concurrent TCP connections are possible.
Each time your computer tries to establish more than 10 half-open connection, a system event will be logged in Windows. It looks something like this:
"EventID 4226: TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts"
Access the event viewer by Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer / System. Sort by Event and scroll down to 4226.

How to fix connection limit in windows xp sp2 and sp3?
It is very simple. First you download Event ID 4226 Patcher version 2.23d. Extract the contents and run ExID4226Patch.exe.

In default, it will set the limit to 50. But you can change the limit to any number you want. for eg: 1000.



Windows Vista
Windows Vista have different limit for different Vista edition. For eg, Home Basic has maximum limit of 2 and Vista Ultimate have maximum limit of 25 per second.

Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer. You could see "EventID 4226: TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts" under System log.


How to fix connection limit in vista?
Vista have enhanced security. So tweaking limit is not easy as in xp.

First you need to find out which version of tcpip.sys you have. Go to \Windows\System32\drivers folder, right click on tcpip.sys and select “Properties”, and the version info will be listed in “Details” pane.

Download the patch for your tcpip.sys version

• patch for ver 6.0.6000.16386 (32bit/64bit)
• Patch for ver 6.0.6000.20645 (32bit)
• Patch for ver 6.0.6000.16567 or 6.0.6000.20689 (32bit/64bit)
• Patch for ver 6.0.6000.16627 (32bit/64bit)
• Patch for ver6.0.6000.20752 (32bit/64bit)
• Patch for ver 6.0.60001.18000 (32bit/64bit)
• Patch for ver 6.0.60001.18063 or 6.0.6001.22167 (32bit/64bit)

Unpack and extract the content of the archive. Follow the instructions in the README.TXT file that comes with the patch. For running InstallPatch32.bat (for x86 system) or InstallPatch64.bat (for x64 system), administrator rights elevation required. Right click on command prompt(start>programs>accessories) and select "Run as Administrator". Execute the bat files using this command prompt.

IMPORTANT
Vista (32/64) requires all drivers to be digitally signed. It will fail to boot up or block driver from loading.

One way of to solve this issue is by pressing F8 during initial boot of the Windows Vista system, and then select Disable Driver Signature Enforcement in the “Advanced Boot Options” menu. However, you have to repetitively do the same process again and again on every system reboot.

But you can automate this process using ReadyDriver Plus. You can download it from here. It will ask for /BOOT path(choose drive which vista is installed). If you have dual boot, you need to choose number of keystrokes. For eg: if you have windows xp under windows vista in boot menu, you need to select 2 keystrokes.

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is a fighting game based on anime series Dragon Ball Z. This game is released for next generation gaming consoles such as Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The game features detailed graphics and dramatic, seamless battles, expected from a next generation console. The plans are to have characters and movement reminiscent of the animation, and high-intensity battles.

During each battle, find conditions to create new dramatic scenes. After the battles, watch a unique story unfold each time you play. There is also a stronger element of offense and defense, due to added energy saving and fighting techniques.

Graphics is far better than all the other DBZ games. The character models, skins and special effects were excellent. The sound effects and voice were also excellent. Voice sounded like the original cast from DragonBallz.

Characters
Even though Burst Limit have limited number of characters, each fighters have their own set of characteristics and abilities which reflect the real characters of anime series. Burst Limit has more variety in its tiers than most of the previous Dragon Ball Z games. Most of the characters are unlocked during the game after completing particular stage.
The following characters are playable in the game:

• Goku
• Gohan
• Piccolo
• Krillin
• Yamcha
• Tien
• Trunks
• Vegeta
• Nappa
• Raditz
• Saibamen
• Frieza
• Captain Ginyu
• Recoome
• Cell
• Android 16
• Android 17
• Android 18
• Bardock
• Broly

Features

• Online Feature - Competition grows with the ability to play online in both the co-op and vs. modes.
• Unique DBZ Story -During each battle, find conditions to create new scenes and watch a unique story unfold at the end of each game.
• Higher Quality Gaming - Experience visuals and movement reminiscent of the anime due to Z3 shading technology and detailed effects.
• High Intensity battles - Increased speed of charge and release on the field, free movement around the field, and increased speed and power of attacks.
• Energy - Use of special skills will no longer drain energy. The lower your energy, the stronger you get, making for a possible turnaround of the battle.
• Fatal Blow - Each character in the game has their own “Fatal Blow”. If the player successfully attacks his opponent, this would be a finishing move, but if not, it will put the player in the disadvantageous situation, and he must battle with no “Fatal Blow” for the rest of the battle.
  

Screenshots

Trailer

Diablo 3 - dream comes true

Blizzard announced the most anticipated RPG game, the Diablo III. Diablo II was one of the most selling games in the history. Blizzard hoping to break the record with this sequel. Blizzard haven't officially announced any release date but it might be near christmas 2009. The title has already been in development for four years, so that’s looking like a fairly realistic.

Diablo III is powered by a new graphics engine that can display characters and hordes of monsters in lush, fully 3D environments. Powerful special-effects systems and Havok-powered physics allow the player to lay waste to the Hells' minions in spectacular ways.

Also, Diablo III builds on the random environments of the previous Diablo games by introducing a host of new ways to create random scripted events throughout the game. This creates a dense and exciting world alive with quests, NPCs, dynamic encounters, and viciously challenging new monsters and bosses. Diablo III's environments add a great deal of interactivity to the game, including destructible elements and environmental obstacles that can be turned against your enemies.

In addition, Diablo III will benefit from Battle.net upgrades that will provide some exciting new features for players. Cooperative online play remains a primary focus, with multiple enhancements being planned to make connecting with your friends easier and cooperative gameplay even more fun. We'll have more details on all these aspects as well as other exciting new features at a later date.

Character classes
Blizzard currently unleashed two classes of Diablo III - Barbarian and Witch Doctor. You can choose the gender also in each classes. They haven't unvieled informations regarding rest of the classes.

Barbarian
Barbarians are most known classes from the first series of Diablo. Barbarian is all about wading into the fray with both weapons blazing. They have strongest close combat melee attacks at their disposal. Barbarians loves fighting and they never get tired or weaken.
Skills:
- Cleave
- Ground Stomp
- Leap
- Seismic Slam
- Whirlwind




Witch Doctor
Witch doctor resembles the Necromancer/Druid class of Diablo II. The Witch Doctor will have control over disease, can summon pets, and can even control the minds of his or her enemies. The coolest ability was the wall of zombie, which is truly terrifying.
Skills:
- Firebomb
- Horrify
- Locust Swarm
- Mass Confusion
- Soul Harvest




Screenshots

Activision Blizzard is born

Activision Blizzard (merging of Activision and Viviendi games) became largest publisher of video games in the word with a value of $18.9 billion. EA now trails with $14.1 billion. Stockholders have approved the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games to form the goliath Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard is expected to have the highest profit margins in the industry.

Despite early expectations from some investors, the deal has not led to a deal wave in the industry. But analysts say the new 800-pound gorilla's reach across the world and various gaming platforms will have a major effect on the way every gaming company thinks about their business.

"What it does is create a (first) truly global gaming company with reach in the U.S., Europe and Asia," including in the fast-emerging Chinese market, said Edward Williams, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets. "It also creates a company that drives revenue from multiple streams, including the massively (multiplayer) online game category that is seeing the biggest growth."

This will force other companies to also approach MMO more aggressively and try to move into other emerging streams and global distribution, he said.

"I don't see a 'deal wave' coming" right now," said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. But he and others also expect a focus of game companies on increased global reach and profitability amid ever-rising development costs that drag down profit margins.

Activision, one of the world’s leading independent publishers of interactive entertainment, is best known for its top- selling franchises, including Guitar Hero®, Call of Duty® and the Tony Hawk series, as well as Spider Man™, X-Men™, Shrek®, James Bond™ and TRANSFORMERS™. Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, has projected calendar 2007 revenues of $1.1 billion, operating margins of over 40% and approximately $520 million of operating profit. Blizzard owns the #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise, World of Warcraft, which currently has over 9.3 million subscribers worldwide. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Warcraft®, StarCraft® and Diablo® games account for four of the top-five best-selling PC game titles of all time. Vivendi Games also owns popular franchises, including Crash Bandicoot™ and Spyro™. Pro forma for calendar 2007, Activision Blizzard expects to generate approximately 70% of its revenues from owned franchises. As a result of the business combination, Activision Blizzard expects to have the most diversified and broadest portfolio of interactive entertainment assets in its industry, positioning the combined company to capitalize on the continued worldwide growth in interactive entertainment.

Hitachi introduces second generation 1TB Drive

Hitachi was first to announce 1TB hard drive in January 2007. Now they announced second generation 1TB drive Deskstar 7K1000.B which used 43% less power than first generation. The 7K1000.B also offers users the option of bulk data encryption (BDE) for the entire contents of the drive.

Instead of five 200 GB disks, the new drive has three 333 GB disks. Hitachi representatives told us that the 5-disk model will continue to be available through 2009, but the 3-disk version will ramp quickly and replace the old drives. What makes the new 7200 rpm drive interesting is not its performance or capacity, but its power consumption.
The 7K1000.B makes use of perpendicular magnetic recording and the drive’s BDE option uses AES encryption certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to deliver the strongest commercially available levels of security for data.

Power requirement for the 7K1000.B is 5.2W at idle and the drive uses a 16MB cache. And if power consumption is the primary concern of the user (such as data storage facilities), the drive supports a “reduced power idle state”: The disk rotation speed can be dropped via HDD commands to less than 5000 rpm, which will take the idle power consumption down to 2.4 watts That is close to 2.5” territory (about 2 – 2.2 watts) and could make these drives an interesting option for any environment that does not depend on maximum data transfer rates. The drive has a maximum media transfer rate of 1388 Mbits/s. For enterprise users needing a high mean time between failure (MTBF), a DeskstarE7K1000 drive is also being introduced that has up to a 32MB buffer and a 1.2 million hour MTBF featuring the same low power requirements and optional encryption technology.

AMD Radeon HD 4870 Delivers First TeraFLOPS Graphics Chip

AMD launched the first teraFLOPS graphics card, the ATI Radeon HD 4850, and the first graphics card featuring ultra high bandwidth GDDR5 memory, the ATI Radeon HD 4870. ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series GPUs bring the power of graphics ‘supercomputing’ to gamers, setting a new standard for visual computing. Redefine the way you play and take HD gaming to the extreme with best-in-class performance. With one teraFLOPS on tap, the TeraScale graphics engine delivers an immersive, cinematic gaming experience. Add this graphics card to your PC and watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity or take your experience to another level with new multimedia capabilities.

"The ATI Radeon 4800 series represents a 2X performance jump over the ATI Radeon HD 3800 GPU, the biggest generational increase since the game-changing launch of the Radeon 9700 in 2002," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "AMD made a strategic decision to focus on GPU designs that maximized our efficiency and allowed us to provide enthusiasts, performance and mainstream users with the most compelling value proposition at every price point. The ATI Radeon 4800 series sets a new industry standard in key metrics such as performance-per-watt, performance-per-mm2 of chip die size, and performance-per-dollar."


The ATI Radeon HD 4870, available with a suggested retail price of USD$299, represents an unprecedented 1.2 teraFLOPS of visual compute power. It features a stock GPU core clock speed of 750 MHz, 512 MB of GDDR5 memory rated at 3.6 gigabits/second, and comes in a dual-slot PCI Express 2.0 configuration with a maximum board power of 160 watts.


The ATI Radeon HD 4850 immediately available with a retail price of USD$199, received an enthusiastic welcome from global graphics reviewers. The ATI Radeon HD 4850 is the first teraFLOPS graphics chip, with 800 stream processing cores (identical to the ATI Radeon HD 4870), a stock GPU core clock speed of 625 MHz, 512 MB of GDDR3 memory rated at 2 gigabits/second, and comes in a single-slot PCI Express 2.0 configuration with a maximum board power of 110 watts.

Building versions of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series are VisionTek, ASUS, PowerColor, MSI, GIGABYTE, GECUBE, Force3D, SAPPHIRE Technology, Diamond Multimedia, Club 3D, HIS (Hightech Information Systems) and Palit Multimedia.


The ATI Radeon HD 4800 series will allow users to experience HD digital content while it can also help improve the definition and image quality of any visual media including standard DVDs and videos. The new series also includes new HD media capabilities, like picture-in-picture HD viewing, fast format conversion of your favorite media, and support for the latest HD audio technologies like 7.1 surround sound.

ATI PowerPlay technology intelligently adjusts requirements to ensure performance is there when you need it most while throttling back for lesser user demands.

With the ATI Radeon HD 3870, AMD set a new performance per watt standard, which has been broken by the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series. Compared to the ATI Radeon HD 3870 series GPU, the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series delivers twice the performance while drawing only 20 percent more power.

Below you can see a comparison between AMD's HD 3800 and the new HD 4800 series of graphics cards:

	ATI radeon HD 3800	ATI radeon HD 4800	Difference
Process	55nm	55nm	no
Die size	190 mm2	256 mm2	1.35x
Transistors	666M	956M	1.4x
4x AA Fillrate	8	16	2x
Z/Stencil	32	64	2x
Texture	16	40	2.5x
Shader	320	800	2.5x
Bandwidth	72 GB/sec	115.2 GB/sec	1.6x

ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series – Key Features

• TeraScale Graphics Engine - The new TeraScale graphics engine features over one teraFLOPS, nearly one billion transistors and 800 stream processors so you can enjoy the high resolutions and fast frame rates previously only available with dual-card systems.
• Advanced Memory - GDDR5 memory provides twice the bandwidth per pin of GDDR3.
• Enhanced Anti-Aliasing & Anisotropic Filtering - High performance anisotropic filtering and 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) smooth jagged edges and create true-to-life graphics, for everything from grass to facial features.
• DirectX® 10.1 - Play today while preparing for tomorrow with state-of-the-art DirectX 10.1 graphics capabilities.
• ATI CrossFireX™ Technology - ATI CrossFireX™ technology with up to quad GPU support offers superior scalability so your system is ready to level up when you are.
• PCI Express 2.0 - Support for PCI Express 2.0 will prepare you for bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications.
• Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2) - UVD 2 frees up your CPU for other tasks so you get The Ultimate Visual Experience™ for even the most processing-intensive content, including VC-1, H.264 and now MPEG-2. Also, take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities.
• Accelerated Video Transcoding (AVT) - AVT allows you to convert videos to H.264 and MPEG-2 formats up to 19x faster than when using a just CPU.3 Full 1080p files can be converted to H.264 and MPEG-2 up to 1.8x faster than real-time.
• Upscale Beyond 1080p - Watch the hottest Blu-ray movies or other HD content at full 1080p display resolution and beyond.
• Enhanced DVD Upscaling - Watch standard DVD movies in near high-definition quality with DVD upscaling. The GPU uses post processing algorithms to enhance standard and low resolution videos and movies on your HD display.
• Dynamic Contrast - Dynamic Contrast automatically adjusts the contrast and brightness during scenes to consistently deliver a crisp, vibrant picture.
• HDMI - Enjoy the latest audio technologies using HDMI with 7.1 digital surround sound support. Also, xvYCC support allows the user to enjoy a wider range of color when connected to a capable HDTV.
• Dynamic Power Management - ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series graphics cards deliver high performance when needed and conserve power when the demand on the graphics processor is low.
• More Performance Per Watt - ATI Radeon HD 4800 series delivers up to 2x the performance per watt of AMD’s previous generation GPUs.
  

Source:cdrinfo

Google introduced Lively - virtual world

Google launched a new service called Lively, a browser based virtual world addon that lets users create and customize avatars and worlds, interact with other users. It is a mimic of Second life by Linden Research, Inc. Although Google lively is not so good as Second life, Lively have lots of future in internet. Currently users can enter Lively from social networking sites such as Facebook.

To use Lively, you need to have Google account and download a browser (Firefox, Ineternet Explorer windows version) plug-in. From there, you are able to create your own avatar – starting from a “template” character which then has customizable attributes like skin tone, hair color, and eye colors. You can also dress your character with clothing and accessories. In turn, you’re now ready to use Lively wherever you encounter a room on the Web by signing into it with your virtual account.


Google Lively requires atleast 1GB RAM(1.5GB for vista) and moreover high speed internet connection. It sometimes take up to half hour for Room Materializing while joining a room for first time. It require atleast 250-500MB Hard Disk space.

Google has created a number of sample rooms that can be copied and altered, or users can start from scratch and build their own world. Furniture and other items can be added and moved around. Avatars can talk to each other, do things like dance and shake hands, and manipulate objects. Google Lively is still in beta stage with full of bugs.

Port Forwarding

Many of the broadband ISP(Internet Service Provider) provides you a router instead of modem. A Router is a device that forwards data packets along network. A broadband router connect LAN(Local Area Network) and ISP's network. Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best path for forwarding the packets. If you have a LAN or having multiple computers which connect to internet then router is best.

Every devices on the internet has an unique IP address which helps to identify that device in internet. In a router based internet connections your PC will not be directly connected to internet like connections using modem. This will seriously affect Online multiplayer games and P2P applications(eg: Bit Torrent).

Port Forwarding(tunneling) is basically forwarding a port from one node to the other. This technique allows an outside user to access a certain port (in a LAN) through a NAT (Network Address Translation) enabled router.

Check whether your connection is router based or not?

• Go to Run ([Windows key]+R or Start->Run)
• Type "cmd" and press [Enter] (for 95, 98 & ME use "command")
• It will open Command prompt. In that, type "ipconfig" and press [Enter]
• If the IP Address(IPv4 Address for Vista) & Default Gateway are in 192.168.x.x range then you have router.

Setup static IP for your PC

• In Windows XP, go to Control Panel->Network Connections. In Windows Vista, go to Control Panel->Network and sharing center->Manage network connections
• Right click on your connection and choose properties. It will open Local Area Network Connnection properties.
• Click on Internet Protocol [TCP/IP](TCP/IPv4 for vista) and click on Properties button.
• If it is not set as Obtain IP Address automatically then your IP is static.
• Otherwise type ipconfig/all in command prompt and note information such as IP Address, Subnet mask, Default Gateway and DNS Adresses.
• Click on the Use following IP address and fill in all the boxes using those values and click Ok button.
  

Setting up Port forwarding
Different applications and games uses different ports. Setting up port forwarding is different for all routers.
Visit website http://portforward.com/routers.htm and choose your router model. It will guide you how to set up port forwarding in your router.

Summary of steps involved:

1. Open your router's configuration page in your browser. for eg: http://192.168.1.1/ which is same as your gateway ip address.
2. It will ask for usernam and password. For username:password try admin:admin or admin:password or ZXDSL:ZXDSL or root:root or both blank.
3. Look for the page like "Port forwarding" or "Virtual Servers" or "NAT Configuration".
4. Click on the Add button or link.
5. For Server IP use your computer's IP. For eg: 192.168.1.2. External and Internal port range are same values. For Single port, give same port value for start and end. If you are not sure about protocol, set up for both TCP & UDP.
6. After configuring, you need to restart router.

Ports
Some of Game ports are listed below. If you cannot find your application/game in this list then go to website http://findports.com/document.php?id=1095

Game	Port(s)	Protocol
Age of Empires Age of Empires Expansion: Rise of Rome Age of Empires II: the Age of Kings Age of Empires II Expansion: The Conquerers Age of Wonders	47624	TCP
	2300-2400	TCP, UDP
	6073	TCP
America's Army	1716	???
Asheron's Call Asherson's Call Dark Majesty	9000-9013	UDP
Baldur's Gate	47624	TCP
	2300-2399	TCP
	2300-2399	UDP
Battlezone 2	17770	UDP
	17771	TCP, UDP
	17772	UDP
Blizzard Battle.Net	4000	TCP, UDP
	6112-6119	TCP, UDP
Close Combat Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far Close Combat III: The Russian Front	47624	TCP
	2300-2400	TCP
	2300-2400	UDP
Close Combat IV Close Combat V	47624	TCP
	2300-2400	TCP
	2300-2400	UDP
Counter Strike	27030-27039	TCP
	1200	UDP
	27000-27015	UDP
Diablo Diablo II Diablo II: Lord of Destruction	4000	TCP, UDP
Dungeon Siege	80	TCP
	2300	UDP
	6073	UDP
	2302-2400	UDP
Empire Earth	33334	UDP
	33335	TCP
GameSpy Arcade	6667	TCP
	3783	TCP
	27900	TCP
	28900	TCP
	29900	TCP
	29901	TCP
Half-life	27015	TCP
Kali	2213 + 1 for each client	TCP
MechWarrior 4:Vengeance	6073	TCP
	2302-2400	UDP
	27999	TCP
	28000	TCP
	28805-28808	TCP
	9999	TCP
Microsoft DirectPlay4 DirectX7 Lobbyable App	47624	TCP
	2300-2400	TCP
	2300-2400	UDP
Microsoft DirectPlay8 DX8 Lobbyable App	6073	UDP
	2302-2400	UDP
Microsoft DirectX 7 CART Precision Racing, version 1.0 Combat Flight Simulator Flight Simulator MechCommander 2.0 Midtown Madness Monster Truck Madness Motocross Madness Urban Assault	47624	TCP
	2300-2400	TCP
	2300-2400	UDP
Neverwinter Nights	5120-5300	UDP
	6500	UDP
	27900	UDP
	28900	UDP
Quake 4	28004	UDP
	27950	UDP
Sacrifice	6073	UDP
	2302-2400	UDP
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds	47624	TCP
	2300-2400	TCP
	2300-2400	UDP
Starcraft Starcraft: Brood War	4000	TCP
Unreal Tournament	7777	TCP, UDP
Warrock	5340	TCP
	5350	UDP
World of Warcraft	3723	TCP
	6112	TCP
	6881-6999	TCP
World War II Online	27015-27020	TCP
Microsoft Zone.com	6667	TCP
	28800-29000	TCP

DMZ
This is a feature included in some routers. A DMS allows router to forward all the ports to a single machine. If you are the only one who uses internet through that router then I recommend you to set up DMZ instead of port forwarding. It will make your router act like modem.
Setting up DMZ is very simple. First setup static IP for your PC. Then in the DMZ configuration on your router, give your computer's IP in the Server IP address box and click Save or Ok. After configuring, you need to restart router.

Graphics card performance chart

Similar performance graphics cards grouped in to tiers. Top tier contain highest performance graphics card and performance decreases as going down tiers. It also include laptop and integrated chipsets from geforce and radeon.

You can use this hierarchy to compare the pricing between two cards, to see which one is a better deal and also to determine if an upgrade is worthwhile. Don't upgrade your graphics card unless the replacement card is three tiers higher.

GRAPHICS CARD HIERARCHY CHART

GeForce	Radeon
9800 GX2
8800 GTX, 8800 Ultra, 9800 GTX	3870 X2
8800 GT 512MB, 8800 GTS 512MB
8800 GTS 640 MB, 9600 GT	HD 2900 XT, 3870
8800 GS, 9600 GSO	3850 512MB
8800 GT 256MB, 8800 GTS 320MB	HD 2900 PRO, 3850 256MB
7950 GX2	X1950 XTX
7800 GTX 512, 7900 GTO, 7900 GTX	X1900 XT, X1950 XT, X1900 XTX
7800 GTX, 7900 GT, 7950 GT	X1800 XT, X1900 AIW, X1900 GT, X1950 PRO, HD 2900 GT
7800 GT, 7900 GS, Go 7950 GTX, 8600 GTS	X1800 XL, X1950 GT, Mobility X1800 XT
6800 Ultra, 7600 GT, 7800 GS, Go 7800 GTX, Go 7900 GTX, 8600 GT	X800 XT (& PE), X850 XT (& PE), X1650 XT, X1800 GTO, Mobility X1900, HD 2600 XT, 3650 (DDR3), 3670
6800 GT, 6800 GS (PCIe), Go 7800, Go 7900 GS, 8700M GT	X800 XL, X800 GTO2/GTO16, Mobility X800 XT, HD 2600 PRO, Mobility HD 2600 XT, 3650 (DDR2)
6800 GS (AGP), Go 6800 Ultra, Go 7600 GT, 8600M GT	X800 GTO 256mb, X800 PRO, X850 PRO, X1650 GT, Mobility HD 2600
6800, Go 6800, 7300 GT GDDR3, 7600 GS, Go 7700, 8600M GS	X800, X800 GTO 128mb, X1600 XT, X1650 PRO, Mobility X1800
6600 GT, 6800LE, 6800 XT, 7300 GT DDR2, Go 7600 (128 bit), 8500 GT	9800 XT, X700 PRO, X800 GT, X800 SE, Mobility X800, X1300 XT, X1600 PRO, HD 2400 XT
FX 5900, FX 5900 Ultra, FX 5950 Ultra, 6600 (128 bit), Go 6800 (128 bit)	9700, 9700 PRO, 9800, 9800 PRO, X700, X1300 PRO, Mobility X1450, X1550, Mobility X1600, Mobility X1700, HD 2400 PRO, Mobility HD 2400 XT, Mobility X2500, HD 3200
FX 5800 Ultra, FX 5900 XT, Go 6600, Go 7600 (64 bit), Go 8600M GS	9500 PRO, 9600 XT, Mobility 9800, 9800 PRO (128 bit), X600 XT, Mobility X700, X1050 (128 bit), Mobility X1350, Mobility X1400, Mobility X2300, Mobility HD 2400
4 Ti 4600, 4 Ti 4800, FX 5700 Ultra, 6200, 8400 GS	9600 PRO, Mobility 9700 (128 bit), 9800 LE, X600 PRO, Mobility X600, Mobility X1300, Xpress 1250, Mobility HD 2300
4 Ti4200, 4 Ti4400, 4 Ti4800 SE, FX 5600 Ultra, FX 5700, 6600 (64 bit), 7300 GS, 8400M GS	9500, 9550, 9600, Mobility 9600, X300, X1050 (64 bit)
3 Ti500, FX 5200 Ultra, FX 5600, FX 5700 LE, Go 5700, 6200 TC, 6600 LE, 7200 GS, 7300 LE	8500, 9100, 9000 PRO, 9600 LE, Mobility 9700 (64 bit), X300 SE, X1150
3, 3 Ti200, FX 5200 (128 bit), FX 5500, Go 5600, Go 6200, Go 6400, Go 7200, Go 7300, Go 7400 (64 bit)	9000, 9200, 9250, Mobility 9600 (64 bit), Mobility X300
FX 5200 (64 bit), 6100, 6150, Go 7200, Go 7400 (32 bit)	9200 SE, Xpress 200M, Xpress 1000, Xpress 1150
2 GTS, 4 MX 440, 2 Ultra, 2 Ti, 2 Ti 200	7500
256, 2 MX 200, 4 MX 420, 2 MX 400	SDR, LE, DDR, 7000, 7200
Nvidia TNT	ATI Rage 128

GeForce buyers guide

Most of the PC users even gamers doesn't have much knowledge about graphics cards. We have seen people buying graphics cards by looking at their price or picture above the package box. It is all wrong. Graphics card itself is like a small computer having motherboard, processor and memory. Main things we can note about graphics card are chipset, manufacturer and memory.

Judging a card's performance by memory is also wrong.. For eg: Geforce 6100LE with 512MB RAM will be like using 1GB RAM on Pentium 300Mhz CPU.
Before you buy a graphics card, you should do a detailed study about that card. Search in Google for comparison and benchmark with other cards of that range is a must.

Introduction to GeForce
GeForce is a brand of PC graphics chipsets designed by Nvidia. Top two brands in graphics card are Nvidia GeForce & ATI Radeon(current owned by AMD).
Budget wise Radeon cards are cheaper than Geforce considering similar performance. But in reliability and quality GeForce is better than Radeon.


Generations of GeForce
Every year Nvidia release new generations of GeForce cards with better performance and advanced technologies.

• GeForce 256 (1991)
• GeForce2 (2000)
• GeForce3 (2001)
• GeForce4 (2002)
• GeForce FX (2003)
• GeForce 6 (2004)
• GeForce 7 (2005 - 2006)
• GeForce 8 (2007) *
  
• GeForce 9 (2008) *
  

* series support DirectX 10

Chipset Number

Every GeForce chipset have a number. for eg: 8600. First digit i.e. 8 is the series/generation and the rest digits are models of that series (bigger number will have higher performance and price.. see Product Naming Scheme)

If we look at GeForce 7 series chipsets. There are several models like 7100, 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950..

• 7100 is the cheapest and lowest in performance. Normally used in inbuilt motherboard graphics and all. Can run games only at low resolution and details.
• 7200, 7300 is for gamers who cannot afford much. They can run games at low resolution and medium details.
• 7600 for budget gamers. They can run games at medium resolution and medium/high details.
• 7800 is for high end gamers. They can run games at high resolution and high details.
• 7900, 7950 are for hardcore gamers who want best. They can run games at max resolution and details.
  

* Note that the all cards will age. Growth of graphics & gaming industry is in exponential rate. Newer games will have more requirements. So we will need to buy new cards every years or 2..

New series cards are more powerful than older series and have lots of supports for current and future games..
For eg: benchmarks proves that GeForce 9400 card = GeForce 8600 = GeForce 7800 in performance..

Product Naming Scheme (source: wikipedia)
This scheme is only applicable to the GeForce FX and above series video cards, however GeForce4 and earlier cards follow a similar pattern.

* Shader amount compares the number of shaders pipelines or units in that particular model range to the highest model possible in the generation.

Card Suffixes
There are suffixes like LE, GS, GT, GTS and GTX/Ultra besides these numbers which are performance factor.

• GTX/Ultra is for mad gamers who can spend lots of money for gaming equipments.. This monster is designed to run future games(after a year) in max quality.
• GTS is for for hardcore gamers.. This one is designed to run current and upcoming games in max quality.
• GS, GT are for normal gamers who cant afford too mch high pricy cards.. This can run current games in max/high quality.. Best choice if u upgrade ur pc regulary. GT is faster than GS.
• LE is stripped down version. It is cheapest and weakest..
  

Gaming Performance vs. Integrated Graphics
Just an example to show the performance difference between some of latest cards. This give more idea about performance variation by chipsets. (Source: nvida website)
GeForce 9800 - 22x
GeForce 8800 - 18x
GeForce 9600 - 15x
GeForce 7900 - 14x
GeForce 8600 - 13x
GeForce 8500 - 5x
GeForce 8400 - 3.8x

Memory
Don't be fooled into thinking the more the memory more performance. Benchmarks proves that high memory doesn't benefit anything in gaming performance unless u run games at very high resolution.

Memory bandwidth is more important than the amount of memory on the card. 3D performance is defined by the speed at which information can get to the GPU , and the memory bandwidth determines just how quickly the graphics processor can get data to and from the memory built onto the graphics card. The greater the bandwidth, the better. There are several memory types like GDDR, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4,etc. Current generation cards uses GDD3 memory. In future it will be GDDR4.

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