Category: Tech

Recently a salesperson turned up at our office proposing to sell Kingston 32 GB pen drives for a very cheap price (Rs.1200 each). He claimed that he had stolen some of them from the port when the shipment arrived. We were not interested and so did not purchase any of them.

As soon as he left, we did a google for the actual price of Kingston 32 GB pen drive. What we came across was a large number of articles mentioning about fake 32 GB Kingston pen drives.

These fake pen drives are actually 512 MB – 2 GB. The packing is exactly like that of Kingston. And when you copy a huge file to the drive, it shows as if the file got copied successfully. Therefore people got fooled easily. The best way I can think of to check whether the pen drive is genuine or not is to copy a huge file to it and compare the md5sums of both the original and the copied file. If they are the same, the copy was successful.

I again went down and looked for the person but he had already left. I think we have to be very careful when purchasing products which come for an extremely low rate.

Another interesting thing which reflects here is the human psychology. Below is an article reg. these fake 32 GB pen drives where almost all the employees of the company ended up purchasing it. It would be interesting to see how many of these employees would be willing to steal these pen drives (given that they would not be caught) from the shipment directly. I am sure many of them wouldn’t be willing to do such a thing. But yet they might not even had given a second thought when purchasing them even when they were told that they were stolen :).

References:
http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/kingston-32-gb-pen-drive-c121831.html#c147706 (Interesting read)
http://www.thefake32gbs.blogspot.com/ (This site mentions some fix for using these drives to their actual capacity which would probably be somewhere between 512 MB – 2 GB).

Here is a little something for those new to the terms or those who are confused between these two terms.

For quite sometime, I had this simple idea:

Open Source – Software for which source is available
Free Software – Software for which we do not have to pay

Well, this was way back and while the first definition is partially correct, the second definition is totally wrong. Actually software for which source is available is generally referred to as “source-available” software and software which are available for free are generally called “freeware”. Also both free and open source software are also “source-available” software but a “source-available” software need not be free / open source. More on this later.

Eventually I got to know the meaning of free software. But I was always wondering about the difference between free software and open source until I came across this article by Richard Stallman where he clearly explains the difference between free software and open source:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

I will try to briefly explain some of these terms for the layman.

Source (or source code) vs. Binary (or binary executables)

Software is generally written in human readable format by programmers. This is called the source or source code. These files are then complied to produce binary executables which are not human readable. These binary files are then executed by the user to perform specific activities. Let us take the simple example of Adobe Acrobat Reader (Adobe acrobat reader is used for reading PDF files). This is how it works.

The programmers at Adobe write thousands of lines of code. They then compile all this code to make the Adobe Reader binary. They then give these binaries to the people so that they can run it and read PDF files.

Here let me add a point about binaries. Binaries are essentially not human readable files. Which means by looking at a binary or by examining it, it is generally very difficult to tell what it can do. For example, by running the Adobe Reader binary you might be able to read PDF files. However, apart from that. the same binary could also be collecting some information such as the kind of PDF files you often read and send this information to Adobe.

Therefore the actual list of activities which a binary can perform can only be known to one who has access to the source code from which the binary was compiled. So, in the above mentioned case, only those at Adobe will actually know what the binary performs because only they have access to its source code. Theoretically it is possible to study the Adobe binary and tell what it can do but like I already mentioned, this is extremely difficult when compared to going through the source code and understanding what the program does.

Summarizing, below are the steps involved in using a software:

1. Source code which is in human readable format is written by programmers
2. This is compiled to form binaries which are not human readable
3. These binaries are executed by users (like you and me) to perform a specific task

This is the way every software, be it proprietary, free or open source, generally works. It should be noted though, that for some programs written in interpreted languagues such as perl/python, there is no need for intermediate binary and the interpreter can execute the program by reading instructions directly from the source files.

Proprietary/Non-free Software

Let me give you an example of proprietary software – “Microsoft Windows operating system”. I believe most of you have been using this for quite sometime. But here are some facts about Windows OS.

– Legally in order to use the Windows OS, you have to purchase it. Most of us end up using pirated Windows and if Microsoft gets to know of this, you could as well be jailed. Anyway, let us assume that you are a law-abiding citizen and have purchased a legal copy of Windows OS.

– Though you have purchased the windows OS, the source of windows is never given to the end users. Only the binaries are given. Which means it is very difficult to tell what all your operating system is performing; it could as well be sending information about you to the government or to some third-party source. This itself could mean that your privacy is compromised.

– The Windows license also does not allow you to distribute their OS. So though you have purchased Windows legally, you do not have the right to distribute it to your friends because the windows licence does not allow it.

– You cannot study or make any changes to the operating system to suit your needs. Note that binaries are not human readable and hence you cannot make any changes to it directly. You have to modify the source code to add your changes and then recompile it to give you your new binary. But as the source code is not available, you cannot make any changes to the source code which means you are limited to using the Windows binaries which they have given.

Have you ever wondered that you are actually using an operating system for which you have paid a price and yet cannot distribute it, cannot modify it and don’t know what all activities it is performing without your knowledge?

Free Software

As an answer to proprietary software, free software came into existence. Quoting Stallman – “When we call software “free,” we mean that it respects the users’ essential freedoms: the freedom to run it, to study and change it, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. This is a matter of freedom, not price, so think of “free speech,” not “free beer.””

So free software does not mean that it could be got for zero price. It means that once you have got the software (either by buying it or for zero price), you get to enjoy these four freedoms.

* Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
* Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
* Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
* Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Freedoms 1 and 3 require source code to be available because studying and modifying software without its source code is highly impractical.

Open Source Software

Open source software just doesn’t mean software for which source code is available. Similar to free software, open source software lets the user study, modify and distribute the source code. The software for which source is available are called “source-available” software. But not all “source-available” software let you modify or distribute it. Therefore one can say that all open source software are “source-available” but not all “source-available” software are open source or free software.

Going by the official definition – “Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.”

The idea behind open source is simple: By letting all the people of the world have access to the code and allowing them to study, make changes and give those changes back to the community, we will eventually have a better piece of software as opposed to a small number of developers working on developing a proprietary software without letting anyone else review this code.

Free Software vs. Open Source

The best way to understand the difference between both of these terms is by going through the link – http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html. Here are a few points from the same article which should help you to understand the difference:

• Nearly all open source software is free software. The two terms describe almost the same category of software, but they stand for views based on fundamentally different values. Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement. For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, because only free software respects the users’ freedom. By contrast, the philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software “better”—in a practical sense only. It says that nonfree software is an inferior solution to the practical problem at hand. For the free software movement, however, nonfree software is a social problem, and the solution is to stop using it and move to free software.
• The idea of open source is that allowing users to change and redistribute the software will make it more powerful and reliable. But this is not guaranteed. Developers of proprietary software are not necessarily incompetent. Sometimes they produce a program that is powerful and reliable, even though it does not respect the users’ freedom. Free software activists and open source enthusiasts will react very differently to that.

  A pure open source enthusiast, one that is not at all influenced by the ideals of free software, will say, “I am surprised you were able to make the program work so well without using our development model, but you did. How can I get a copy?” This attitude will reward schemes that take away our freedom, leading to its loss.

  The free software activist will say, “Your program is very attractive, but I value my freedom more. So I reject your program. Instead I will support a project to develop a free replacement.” If we value our freedom, we can act to maintain and defend it.

• Under pressure from the movie and record companies, software for individuals to use is increasingly designed specifically to restrict them. This malicious feature is known as Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) (see DefectiveByDesign.org and is the antithesis in spirit of the freedom that free software aims to provide. And not just in spirit: since the goal of DRM is to trample your freedom, DRM developers try to make it hard, impossible, or even illegal for you to change the software that implements the DRM.

  Yet some open source supporters have proposed “open source DRM” software. Their idea is that, by publishing the source code of programs designed to restrict your access to encrypted media and by allowing others to change it, they will produce more powerful and reliable software for restricting users like you. The software would then be delivered to you in devices that do not allow you to change it.

  This software might be open source and use the open source development model, but it won’t be free software since it won’t respect the freedom of the users that actually run it. If the open source development model succeeds in making this software more powerful and reliable for restricting you, that will make it even worse.

I hope this article has helped you in gaining an initial understanding of software freedom. Googling for free software and open source software should give you a lot of links where you can get a better understanding of these terms.

I’d like to thank my friend Sunil Mohan for reviewing this article and giving his valuable feedback.

Betamax, the company behind low cost voip services such as VoipDiscount has now come out with another offering Actionvoip. While Actionvoip does not provide free calls to any destination, it does provide the cheapest rate to call up Indian landlines (46 paise / minute) and mobiles (66 paise / minute). This is so far the cheapest rates I have ever come across for calling Indian phones.

Betamax is a VOIP company which in my opinion provides generally the lowest calling rates. They have rolled out many VOIP websites. For a complete list of Betamax services and their price comparisons, you might visit the below websites:

http://backsla.sh/betamax
http://progx.ch/home-voip-prixbetamax-3-1-1.html

Based on the rates to the country you are planning to call and the number of free-days you would like to have, you could decide on which service of theirs to use. Certain things I would like to highlight:

• Watch out for the freedays. Some provide 0 days, some 90, some 120 and I think only one (VOIPBusterPro) offers 365 days a year (but there is a catch as they charge 3.9 euro cents connection fee per call).
• Though they claim to provide VoIP-In numbers for inbound calling, this feature is not available for everyone. I think it is only available for those calling from some specific countries.
• There has been some credit card fraud related cases with Betamax. I am not sure what had happened. But it might be a good idea to use something like Paypal rather than your credit card.
• Lastly, from what I have heard, customer service at Betamax really sucks. I even remember sending them some query and not getting back any response. Which means if you are facing problems with your account, there might be nobody to help you out.

Any idea on how much your wallet (+mobile) could be worth (generally speaking) keeping apart the liquid cash? – 60 k (credit card) + 25 k (debit card) + 5 k (calls using mobile SIM) = Rs.80000. So if someone gets hold of it and you don’t become aware of it immediately, you could be robbed upto 80 K in a single day. Here are some neat tricks on minimizing the loss due to stolen debit/credit cards:

1. Insure: Debit card can be used at merchandise stores for shopping. Regular ICICI debit cards could be used for shopping upto 25k in a single day. ICICI debit cards (and probably other Indian Visa debit cards) are insured upto 25k in case of accidental misuse (http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/aug/19visa.htm). Similarly Credit Cards could be insured as well (I believe certain credit cards such as the ICICI Platinum card are insured upto a certain amount by default).
2. PIN: Certain debit cards (such as those provided by SBH & SBI and maybe others which have Maestro Logo) As per mandate passed by RBI, all debit cards need to have the Debit Card PIN entered in order to authorize the purchase at POS. This adds a additional layer of difficulty to use a stolen card.
3. Chip (and PIN): Credit cards offered by leading banks now can have a secure chip embedded in them which makes it really difficult to counterfit them. Further, they are protected by a PIN which is required to be entered on the terminal for making transactions at merchant outlets. This makes it extremely secure.
4. Mobile Alerts: You could subscribe for mobile phone alerts for your debit or credit card. For ex., whenever a purchase of Rs.2000 or greater is made using my ICICI debit card, I immediately get an alert on my mobile.
5. Credit Limit: Limit on credit cards can be reduced by contacting customer care. For instance, I got the limit on my ICICI credit card reduced from 60 K to 5 k. The reason being I never make any unplanned purchase greater than 5 k and if I ever decide to make a purchase greater than 5 k, I could use my add-on credit card.
   Similar to credit card, the limit on your SIM could be reduced as well. For ex., the total cost of my calls never crossed Rs.1000. So I decided to have the limit on my Airtel SIM reduced from Rs.5000 to Rs.1500.
6. Verified By Visa / MasterCard SecureCode: For online purchases, you can now have an extra level of authentication by signing up for Verified By Visa / MasterCard SecureCode services. However, I have observed that while I was always asked to enter a PIN for purchases made via Indian payment gateways, I was never prompted for any PIN for international transactions. My guess is that, this has been mandated by RBI for only Indian payment gateways or Indian merchants.
7. Block upon Loss: And the most important thing to remember whenever you lose a debit/credit/mobile, is to call up the concerned customer care and inform them immediately to block it. So always keep certain information such as customer care phone no. and your account number easily accessible (you could perhaps store this information in your mobile).
   There might be an additional cost for issuing a new card later but it would be very less compared to what could potentially be lost if the current card is misused.

Following these tips, I believe you could relax in case you are forgetful like me :).

While I was just settling down this morning to finish “The Google Story”, I received a mail from my current domain registrar “Mitsu.in” reminding me reg. the renewal of my domain “amaram.name”. And as always, I ended up spending a few hours reviewing the current domains and choosing what I felt was the best :).

One problem which I had with my current registrar “Mitsu.in” was that I was unable to assign different nameservers (NX entires) for a specific sub-domain. I was told that I could change the nameservers for the entire domain “amaram.name” but not for any particular sub-domain. A second issue was that anything other than the basic services, would cost me extra. So for example if the basic domain registration cost Rs.350, email forwarding would cost me extra Rs.40, domain forwarding Rs.40, managed dns Rs. 40 and an email account Rs.25. As such it is not a bad domain registrar, but I felt there might be better choices out there.

And so here are my findings:

Top Rated domain registrars

Non-Indian (but may support .in domains):
http://www.namecheap.com (not ICANN-accredited registrar but has a lot of positive reviews)
http://www.domainsite.com (ICANN-accredited registrar)
http://www.dynadot.com (ICANN-accredited registrar)
http://www.godaddy.com (ICANN-accredited registrar and as of today has the largest number of domains registered but is highly controversial reg. its business practices)

Indian:
http://www.answerable.com (ICANN-accredited)
http://www.mitsu.in (.in accredited registrar)

Note that answerable.com and mitsu.in do not support “Private Whois” for .CO.IN, .NET.IN, .ORG.IN, .GEN.IN, .FIRM.IN, .IND.IN, .IN and some other domains

References

http://www.namebays.com/
http://www.namepros.com/registerindex.php
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/domain-registration/review.html
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html

After considering all factors (accredited or not, features, pricing and reviews), I decided to transfer my domain “amaram.name” to http://www.domainsite.com. It is definitely worth checking out (especially for its free Google services).

See also my previous posts reg. domain registration – Domain Name Changed Again And … and Update.

My site had faced a big downtime last week – for 4 consecutive days. Thanks to the then hosting provider Powweb, I had to face this problem. As a matter of fact, I had sent them a mail immediately when my site went down. They took 2 days to respond and said that the problem was fixed. But even after an additional 2 days my site was still down. This along with the fact that even previously there were frequent downtimes (about 2-3 hours per week) made me switch my hosting provider.

To know which hosting providers are good, I started reading many reviews. But I soon realized that actually most of the review sites are affiliates and so give biased reviews. But there were four hosting providers which I’ve found had consistently good reviews (I was especially concentrating on those which provided SSH access) – LunarPages, Bluehost, Host Monster and Host Gator.

Lunarpages would have been the obvious choice if not for the fact that it did not provide SSH access (Lunarpages now provides SSH access on its shared hosting as well. But I was so impressed with my provider Host Gator that I continued with it). I had already used Bluehost and it was good but I found their servers a bit slow. Hostmonster, a subsidiary of Bluehost seemed to be having the same features of Bluehost but for a slightly cheaper price. I was not sure whether to go with Host Monster or Host Gator as they had almost identical features (http://www.hostingmatrix.org/shared/compare/HostGator-Baby+HostMonster) but finally I decided to go with Host Gator as it seemed to have marginally better reviews than Host Monster and also Host Monster did not support wild-card SSL certificates (or certificates for add-on and sub-domains) which I really needed. You can read independent reviews about both of them at http://www.hostmonsterreview.org and http://www.hostgatorreview.org.

And oh boy I should agree, this was perhaps the wisest choice I had made. Not that Host Monster is bad (I actually never used it) but that Host Gator is simply awesome. I AM BEYOND WORDS OF PRAISE FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND SERVICE. Actually a week after signing up with Host Gator I realized that Host Monster offers a free domain where as Host Gator did not offer any free domain but I am so immensely satisfied with Host Gator that this hardly matters. Also I took the 2 year plan rather than the one year plan as it was benefiting me considerably because of the 20% discount which is valid upto Feb 1st. Moreover Host Gator comes with a 45-days full money back guarantee and even later you can decide to opt out of their service any time (and you will get a refund on pro-rated basis). Most of the times, there are coupons available for the major hosting providers. Be sure to google and use such coupons for getting discounts.

Overall I am very pleased with Host Gator. They understand customer needs very well. The Live Chat responds in less than 2 mins and very courteous. They might not be able to solve your problem immediately but give you the right pointers. Keep up the great work Host Gator.

Visiting the sites of the above mentioned web hosting providers, should give you an idea about what you can expect from shared hosting providers. DreamHost and Site5 offer many more features for the same price but they had mixed reviews. Also I had few other doubts while choosing a hosting and I have mentioned these below. I have also stated their status with respect to Host Gator (I will try to keep this list as updated as possible).

1. I already have a domain and I make a lot of modifications in DNS records of its sub-domains. I understand that cPanel does not provide me the facility to modify the DNS records of sub-domains. I would like to know if I can continue maintaining the domain at my current registrar and point the A record of the domains which I plan to host at your company to the IP provided by you. Will this work or is it mandatory that I change the NS records of my domain? If it is mandatory, can I at least raise service requests to change the DNS records of my sub-domains?

   Yes it is possible. Changing the NS records is not necessary as long as the A and MX record entries of your domain point to Host Gator. Also if you decide to set the NS records to that of Host Gator, you can always raise support tickets to change the A/MX record of any sub-domain.

2. I have .name and .in domains. Can they be hosted at HostGator as well?

   Yes

3. Right now I plan to purchase the HostGator baby plan for one year which is about 120 USD. But by applying the new year coupon, I can get 20% off. After the completion of one year, I’d have to renew again. I’d like to know if there are any coupons like the current one next year, can I use it to avail the discount then? Or are these coupons only for new accounts?

   These coupons are generally applicable only for new accounts.

4. Are the following supported on SSH?

   – rsync for remote backup
   – vim enhanced (I am especially looking for syntax highlighting / vim color editing)

   Yes. I had to raise a service request for installing vim enhanced though.

5. Which of the following versions are offered?

   – Apache 2
   – Mysql 5
   – PHP 5

   Apache 1.3.39, Mysql 5 and PHP5. Be sure to first have mysql 5 enabled before configuring your account as this involves moving Mysql 5 to a different server.

6. I shall also be using php5. Is it possible for having a custom php.ini file?

   Yes

7. Can I use any third party modules for php and perl? Do you support installation of some custom modules (which of course are not expected to consume any resources)?

   Yes. It depends upon the modules which you want to have installed.

8. Is webdav supported?

   Nope.

9. I understand that if I cancel my account within 45 days of activation, the entire amount will be refunded. But I would like to know if it is feasible to cancel my account after 45 days? Will there be some kind of refund (at least partial) be provided?

   Yes money will be refunded on a pro-rated basis.

10. Are the following outgoing ports allowed access from SSH

    – HTTP
    – HTTPS
    – SSH
    – FTP
    – IMAP

    Yes. IMAP was originally blocked but when I explained to them that I needed it to be open for moving my mails from my previous hosting provider to that of Host Gator, they immediately opened it.

11. Is there any process limit?

    There is a process limit of 25 per account. In case this limit is exceeded, you may get strange errors such as site throwing errors, ssh giving resource unavailable error. In such a situation you can kill the current processes by executing “pkill -u userid” from shell or raising a support ticket to do the same.

12. Is Dedicated IP offered?

    Yes, for an additional price.

13. Are Shared and Private SSL offered?

    Yes. Shared SSL is offered for free. Private SSL will cost extra.

14. Can we use our own private SSL or should we mandatorily purchase the SSL from you?

    You would need to have your cert reissued if you want to use it here, but we can install it after it’s been reissued for you. We can install it here for a $10 fee. As long as everything matches the certificate to your domain, any CA is alright. You also need to purchase a dedicated IP though.

15. Could we use private SSL for an add-on domain or sub-domain or is it restricted to primary domain?

    It can be installed for an addon or sub if it’s issued for it.

16. Are wild-card SSL certificates allowed. Do they apply for sub-domains as well as add-on domains?

    Yes (One of the support personnel told me that the CSR has to be mandatorily generated on their machine but this is actually not necessary. You only need the rsa key and valid certificate issued by CA to have it installed on their server).

17. Can I change my primary domain? Does it cost me extra?

    Yes. Please fill out the form at https://secure.hostgator.com/changedomain.php.

18. Do you provide backup MX service?

    Nope.

19. If you provide SSH access, does it provide public key authentication?

    Yes.

As a small request, if you have found the information in this blog useful and have decided to buy an account, kindly click on Host Gator or on the Host Gator banner in this site just before you sign-up with them. This will help me make a few bucks through the referral program (you could consider this as a donation or incentive for sharing information like this :)). Also note that this does not have any effect on the sign-up offers (coupons) that you would like to avail.

Website: Pinnacle-to-go

I had purchased the Pinnacle-to-go USB TV Tuner Card about a year back here in Secunderabad, India. Pinnacle is supposed to the best company for TV Tuners card (at least among those available in my city). But I am disappointed with it. The TV works fine but the video cassette to DVD conversion was not that great. I had some video cassettes but when I connected the video player to the laptop (via the composite input), the playback video quality was just average and hence the recorded quality also was average. I definitely expected it to be much better because of the brand name. Also I have had a lot of problems in trying to make this device work properly in linux. Also one thing to note is that the PCTV Media Center which came with it is now outdated. The latest PCTV viewing product is called “Pinnacle TVCenter Pro” (can be downloaded from Pinnacle Site).

To summarize, among the features which I used, TV viewing and recording is decent but quality of playing back via the composite input was poor. If you are looking for TV viewing, then you may consider buying this. But if it is for video capture (especially good quality), then I’d suggest you look at other products from Pinnacle. Also last but not the least, be sure to read as many reviews as possible before you purchase any TV Tuner / Video Capture Card.

Comptia is a certifying authority. One of its exams which I had given and cleared in April 2006 was the Comptia Network+ Certification. I wasn’t planning to take it. But as I was anyway reading a book on Networking Basics (which actually was a guide to Network+ Certification exam), I decided to take it. And I should say the book which I went through (All-In-One Network+ Certification Exam Study Guide Second Edition With CD, Indian Edition) is an excellent resource for learning Networking basics. Below is the errata for the book (note that this has not been validated by anyone else). I couldn’t contact the author for sending it and they might have been fixed in the later editions. Anyway, here it is:

– In Page 366, (Chapter 12 -> Under “Windows 2000” section), it is metioned “Windows 2000 only supported TCP/IP natively, although through extra configration it supported NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, and AppleTalk”. This is contradictory to the answer given for Question No. 9 which states that “TCP/IP and IPX/SPX are native on a Windows 2000 syster. NetBEUI comes with 2000, but you must install it”
– In Page 503, (Chapter 16 -> V standards), the speed for V.34 is mentioned as “28,000 bps”. It should be “28,800 bps”.
– In Page 507, (Chapter 16 -> ISDN), it is mentioned “ISDN PRI only provides a single B channel for a total throughput of 64 Kbps”. But as per information on the internet an ISDN PRI provides 23 B channels and a D channel with a bandwidth of 64 kbps.
– In Page 513 (Chapter 16 -> Satellite), it is mentioned “Neither cable modems nor satellite use PPP,PPPoE, or anything else that begins with three Ps.”. But PPPoE can be used over a cable modem.
– In Page 518, (Chapter 16 -> Copper Carriers: T1 and T3), it is mentioned “There are also E3 lines, which are similar to T3 lines, with a bandwidth of 45 Mbps”. But the bandwidth of E3 lines are 34.368 Mbps.
– In Page 592, “SFU” is written as “FSU”. This is a typo.

Apart from that book, here are some other useful links:

Comptia official site
———————

http://www.comptia.org/certification/Network/default.aspx

Free study guides (I managerd to cover only first three)
——————————————————–

http://certiguide.com/netplus/index.htm – This is a free complete online Network+ study guide which also includes real world exam questions
http://www.examforce.com/customer/special14.php – This free study guide was advertised in the official comptia site itself
http://www.techexams.net/technotes/networkplus/pdf.shtml
http://studynotes.net/indnet.htm
http://www.cramsession.com/certifications/products/product-details.asp?product_id=10030&product_type=study+guides

Free sample questions
———————

http://www.bestsamplequestions.com/network-plus-sample-questions/network-plus-sample-questions.html
http://www.simulationexams.com/SampleQuestions/net_q1.htm
http://www.thecertificationhub.com/networkplus/networkplus_test_bank.htm

Brief overview revision study guides (Cram notes)
————————————————–

http://www.mcmcse.com/comptia/network/N10003guide.shtml
http://www.examguides.com/network-plus.htm
http://www.jamesgibbon.com/nplus/basic.html
http://www.riguy.com/net+.html

Free practice tests (online) (in decreasing order of relevance according to me)
——————————————————————————-

http://www.comptia.org/certification/network/samplequestions.aspx
http://www.techexams.net/co_netplus.shtml
http://www.passitnow.com/comptia.html
http://pages.prodigy.net/aplus_omega/net1.htm
http://www.cert21.com/N10-002.htm
http://www.exampractice.com/certification/comptia/networkplus/
http://www.cram4exams.com/exams/net+.shtml
http://www.cram4exams.com/exams/net+2.shtml
http://www.freepractice.com/network_plus/network_plus.htm
http://www.mcmcse.com/forums/exams/questions.php?id=17 (I couldn’t get to log in here)

Free practice tests (software)
——————————

http://www.examforce.com/customer/special13.php
http://www.preplogic.com/products/exams/download/550/setup.exe
http://www.ucertify.com/exams/CompTIA/N10-003.html
http://www.vnpublishing.com/netplusdownconfirm.htm
http://www.simulationexams.com/downloads/comptia/network+download.htm
http://www.studyhallsoftware.com/Demoexams/NetplusTests.exe
http://www.selftestsoftware.com/demo/default.aspx [this has only 5 sample questions]

Pages which have links to the above resources (this pages are essentially collection of the above sites)
——————————————————————————————————–

http://certification.about.com/od/comptiaquestions/
http://www.certification-crazy.net/network_study.htm
http://www.certguide.com/networkplus.asp

References
———-

http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_toc.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/workingwithipaddresses/l/blip.htm