Decoding a website URL

It is easy to get caught out by phishing scams if you don't know how website addresses work. The URL of a web page has several components and understanding them is important to your security. It's easy to spot fake ones and to avoid phishing if you know how to decode them.

URLs like http://paypal.verification-processing.com/index.htm look complicated, but it isn't. Chop off the http:// because that is unimportant, at least to us reading the URL. (To a computer it actually specifies the communication protocol.)

This leaves paypal.verification-processing.com/index.htm. Now chop off everything after the first forward slash. That refers to a page or program on the website.

We are now left with paypal.verification-processing.com from the original URL. Now read from right to left. The item on the right in this case is .com, but it could be .org, .gov, or any one of a number of two or three letter country codes. Let's skip this for a minute.

What remains is paypal.verification-processing and the right-most item is the important bit. In this case it is verification-processing and that is the website we would visit if we typed in the original URL or clicked a link with the URL. So what looked like a PayPal website URL at first glance is actually a website called verification-processing. This is obviously not PayPal. It's a fake website that is designed to look like it and to steal your login details.

This recent news story tells of a new Twitter scam that steals your login username and password. The URL that you are sent to is http://videos.twitter.secure-logins01.com/ and it's an obvious fake. Strip out the unnecessary bits and you get the name of the site, secure-logins01, and it's clearly not Twitter, so don't enter your login details!

Going back to the .com that we skipped earlier, it's worth noting that not all companies register all possible URLs. For example, www.apple.com is the Apple website where you'll find Macs, but www.apple.co.uk is The Apple Agency, which is a completely different company that deals with artwork and illustrations. In theory it would be possible to create a look-alike website with a different top level domain name, such as www.paypal.ru so it pays to know what it should be - .com in this case.

One final point, it is easy to disguise URLs. Click http://www.google.com/ and you'll get Bing and not Google.

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Call me, even when I'm out

For anyone that has a website, blog or some other online page that your friends, work colleagues or customers visit, you need to think about how they can get in touch with you. One way is to use Skype, the free PC-to-PC internet telephone. The best part is that you can include a Call me! button on your website or blog that enables people to call you through Skype without having to load the program, find you among their contacts and then call you. One click and they are chatting with you.

There's a useful Call me! button generator at the Skype website and you enter your Skype username and then select one of four different styles. The code to paste into your web page is shown at the bottom of the page.

Click the cursor inside the box then press Ctrl+A to select all the code and then Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard. Now you need to go to your web page editor or blog editor. Place the cursor where you want the button to appear and look among the menus and tools for an option to insert some HTML code (don't paste it in wysiwyg mode or it won't work). When you've switched to HTML code view, press Ctrl+V to paste in the button code.

The Call me! button can be inserted into emails too and it's great to include it with your signature at the end of a message. Once again you need to paste it into code view and not the normal view. In Outlook Express, for example, choose Source Edit on the Edit menu and then select the Source tab at the bottom of the New Message window before pasting in the code.

What if you are out when someone calls? With a normal call you would have an answerphone that enables the caller to leave a voice message. Skype doesn't have any built in facilities to record calls, but Pamela can. Pamela is a great utility and there are four versions. The free Basic one is good enough for home use. Download it and install it. When you run it with Skype, Skype will ask if you want to allow Pamela access to its features and you must say yes. Now whenever you make a call a window will pop up asking if you want to record the conversation. There are also facilities for automatically answering calls when you aren't around. Of course, you'll need to leave your PC switched on and connected to the internet with a broadband connection, but that's OK.

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Windows vs Snow Leopard

The latest version of Apple's operating system, Snow Leopard, OS X version 10.6, has just been released. There is no shortage of reviews and articles on the web praising it or criticising it. Apple users say it is the world's best operating system and that it is much better than Windows 7. They call Windows 7 just a Vista Service Pack that Microsoft has quickly thrown together to try and make up for the disasterous current operating system. Snow Leopard is the ultimate operating system, of course.

You will also find reviews of Windows 7 on the web that praise Microsoft's next operating system and they say that it is the best yet. It is full of brand new features and Windows has been completely redesigned. Windows fans also occasionally criticise Apple's Snow Leopard, although not as much as the other way around, claiming that it offers very little that is new and that it is merely a service pack. After all, it's just a 0.1 version number increase and it's still called Leopard.

Each operating system is very different and each one has its fans. Snow Leopard has some good features, but also some drawbacks and the same is true of Windows 7. Some people will prefer one while others will prefer the other. Can't we respect each other's preferences?

There isn't a winner in this contest. In fact, there isn't even a contest. In October when Windows 7 goes on sale you will be able to buy it and install it on your PC, but you won't be able to buy Snow Leopard and install it on your PC because it only works on a Mac. Windows 7 and Linux are direct competitors because you can choose to put either of them on your PC, but you can't choose to put Snow Leopard on it. This means that Apple and Microsoft aren't true competitors because Microsoft sells operating systems and Apple sells computers. Apple competes with the likes of Dell, HP and Acer - when buying a new PC you have a choice, but when it comes to upgrading the OS, there's no choice at all.

If you have a Windows PC then you'll love Windows 7, but if you have a Mac then Snow Leopard is a great upgrade.

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