India Toll Free Numbers / Customer Care Numbers List

I received this as an email forward, did not verify the numbers. I am not responsible for any errors in the list!

Airways
Indian Airlines – 1800 180 1407
Jet Airways – 1800 22 5522
SpiceJet – 1800 180 3333
Automobiles
Mahindra Scorpio – 1800 22 6006
Maruti – 1800 111 515
Tata Motors – 1800 22 5552
Windshield Experts – 1800 11 3636
Banks
ABN AMRO – 1800 11 2224
Canara Bank – 1800 44 6000
Citibank – 1800 44 2265
Corporatin Bank – 1800 443 555
Development Credit Bank – 1800 22 5769
HDFC Bank – 1800 227 227
ICICI Bank – 1800 333 499
ICICI Bank NRI – 1800 22 4848
IDBI Bank – 1800 11 6999
Indian Bank – 1800 425 1400
ING Vysya – 1800 44 9900
Kotak Mahindra Bank – 1800 22 6022
Lord Krishna Bank – 1800 11 2300
Punjab National Bank – 1800 122 222
State Bank of India – 1800 44 1955
Syndicate Bank – 1800 44 6655
Cell Phones
BenQ – 1800 22 08 08
Bird CellPhones – 1800 11 7700
Motorola MotoAssist – 1800 11 1211
Nokia – 3030 3838
Sony Ericsson – 3901 1111
Computers/IT
Adrenalin – 1800 444 445
AMD – 1800 425 6664
Apple Computers – 1800 444 683
Canon – 1800 333 366
Cisco Systems – 1800 221 777
Compaq – HP – 1800 444 999
Data One Broadband – 1800 424 1800
Dell – 1800 444 026
Epson – 1800 44 0011
eSys – 3970 0011
Genesis Tally Academy – 1800 444 888
HCL – 1800 180 8080
IBM – 1800 443 333
Lexmark – 1800 22 4477
Marshal’s Point – 1800 33 4488
Microsoft – 1800 111 100
Microsoft Virus Update – 1901 333 334

Seagate – 1800 180 1104
Symantec – 1800 44 5533
TVS Electronics – 1800 444 566
WeP Peripherals – 1800 44 6446
Wipro – 1800 333 312
xerox – 1800 180 1225
Zenith – 1800 222 004
Couriers/Packers & Movers
ABT Courier – 1800 44 8585
AFL Wizz – 1800 22 9696
Agarwal Packers & Movers – 1800 11 4321
Associated Packers P Ltd – 1800 21 4560
DHL – 1800 111 345
FedEx – 1800 22 6161
Goel Packers & Movers – 1800 11 3456
UPS – 1800 22 7171
Education
Edu Plus – 1800 444 000
Hindustan College – 1800 33 4438
NCERT – 1800 11 1265
Vellore Institute of Technology – 1800 441 555
Healthcare
Best on Health – 1800 11 8899
Dr Batras – 1800 11 6767
GlaxoSmithKline – 1800 22 8797
Johnson & Johnson – 1800 22 8111
Kaya Skin Clinic – 1800 22 5292
LifeCell – 1800 44 5323
Manmar Technologies – 1800 33 4420
Pfizer – 1800 442 442
Roche Accu-Chek – 1800 11 45 46
Rudraksha – 1800 21 4708
Varilux Lenses – 1800 44 8383
VLCC – 1800 33 1262
Home Appliances
Aiwa/Sony – 1800 11 1188
Anchor Switches – 1800 22 7979
Blue Star – 1800 22 2200
Bose Audio – 1800 11 2673
Bru Coffee Vending Machines – 1800 44 7171
Daikin Air Conditioners – 1800 444 222
DishTV – 1800 12 3474
Faber Chimneys – 1800 21 4595
Godrej – 1800 22 5511
Grundfos Pumps – 1800 33 4555
LG – 1901 180 9999
Philips – 1800 22 4422
Samsung – 1800 113 444
Sanyo – 1800 11 0101
Voltas – 1800 33 4546
WorldSpace Satellite Radio – 1800 44 5432
Hotel Reservations
GRT Grand – 1800 44 5500
InterContinental Hotels Group – 1800 111 000
Marriott – 1800 22 0044
Sarovar Park Plaza – 1800 111 222
Taj Holidays – 1800 111 825
Insurance
AMP Sanmar – 1800 44 2200
Aviva – 1800 33 2244
Bajaj Allianz – 1800 22 5858
Chola MS General Insurance – 1800 44 5544
HDFC Standard Life – 1800 227 227
LIC – 1800 33 4433
Max New York Life – 1800 33 5577
Royal Sundaram – 1800 33 8899
SBI Life Insurance – 1800 22 9090
Mattresses
Kurl-on – 1800 44 0404
Sleepwell – 1800 11 2266
Investments/Finance
CAMS – 1800 44 2267
Chola Mutual Fund – 1800 22 2300
Easy IPO’s – 3030 5757
Fidelity Investments – 1800 180 8000
Franklin Templeton Fund – 1800 425 4255
J M Morgan Stanley – 1800 22 0004
Kotak Mutual Fund – 1800 222 626
LIC Housing Finance – 1800 44 0005
SBI Mutual Fund – 1800 22 3040
Sharekhan – 1800 22 7500
Tata Mutual Fund – 1800 22 0101
Paints
Asian Paints Home Solutions – 1800 22 5678
Berger Paints Home Decor – 1800 33 8800
Teleshopping
Asian Sky Shop – 1800 22 1800
Jaipan Teleshoppe – 1800 11 5225
Tele Brands – 1800 11 8000
VMI Teleshopping – 1800 447 777
WWS Teleshopping – 1800 220 777
Travel
Club Mahindra Holidays – 1800 33 4539
Cox & Kings – 1800 22 1235
God TV Tours – 1800 442 777
Kerala Tourism – 1800 444 747
Kumarakom Lake Resort – 1800 44 5030
Raj Travels & Tours – 1800 22 9900
Sita Tours – 1800 111 911
SOTC Tours – 1800 22 3344
UPS
APC – 1800 44 4272
Numeric – 1800 44 3266
Others
Consumer Helpline – 1800 11 4000
L’Or?al, GARNIeR – 1800 223 000
KONE Elevator – 1800 444 666
Indane – 1800 44 51 15
Aavin – 1800 44 3300
Pedigree – 1800 11 2121
Kodak India – 1800 22 8877
Domino’s Pizza – 1800 111 123
World Vision India – 1800 444 550
Telecom Monitoring Cell – 1800 110 420
Did these numbers work for you? Let me know in comments page. BTW, updated the numbers from 1600* to 1800*

15 tips on How to survive as a hacker

15 tips on How to survive as a hacker

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This article will show you some of the top ways the best hackers use to keep themselves hidden and out of jail and survive as a hacker,First of all i want to make one thing clear to all that this is not a site which exite hackers but this is developed to help innocent people not getting trapped by hackers,Most of hackers do not take care of the following things and get caught and result in troubling their selves and also their families so below are 15 tips to survive as a hacker,Educational purposes only,written for begineers

How to survive as a hacker - Tips

Never Disclose your Identity:
Never tell any body that you are a hacker even your friends or your relatives,you must keep it a secret

Use Proxy:
Never hack without a proxy

Be Careful:
Never let FBI enter your house without a search warrant.

Never Hack from your home:
Never hack from your home always use net cafe for these purposes

Always:
Wave to cops

Use Fake information:
Never use your real name in any sort of conversation or in any signup

Never keep weak passwords:
Do not keep a password which is already present in the dictionary or a password which is very common
etc your pet name,Your country name etc

Password tip:
Dont use same password twice for maximum security

Of course:
Never hack from the same computer twice if possible

Hide your Ip:
Hide your Ip address to avoid your chances of being traced,i have made a post on Hide your IP address

Use Firewall:
Always use a Good firewall such as zonealram

Change your Ip:
Change your Ip address daily if possible,I have wrote an article on How to change your Ip address

Use fake information while signing up:
Dont enter your personal information eg your address,your number etc while
Using social networking sites like orkut,Facebook etc

Most importantly:
Always have a panic button that mass deletes your questionable content

OF course:
Never let the FBI in period.

Yet again:
Always use a Proxy when doing anything remotely illegal

Explanation of IP Address

A brief explanation of IPs and how they are affected by Broadband, Routers and Contention Ratios, plus a comparison of IPv4 and IPv6

What is an IP ?
An IP is a slang term for the numerical address of a computer or resource on a network. The initials stand for Internet Protocol, and the correct term in full is 'IP address'.
Any network has IPs, and that includes the largest - the Internet - and the smallest: your PC and router. In fact even your own PC has a local network within itself, with a local IP for the PC itself, so that it can route traffic correctly if you have a server application of some sort installed and then query it from within the same PC (it's 127.0.0.1). This IP is also used on a server for its own local traffic, for example to/from MySQL databases.
A server is just an ordinary PC, usually running Linux instead of Windows, usually 64-bit, with more RAM than usual (8GB is a common figure though some go to 32GB), fast disks, and not much in the way of graphics capability.
Broadband IPs
Most people want to know about their broadband IP. On DSL (DSL equals ADSL equals broadband), all IPs are dynamic. The word dynamic means changing / moving / unconstant. DSL IPs are never static (stable /unmoving / the same).
The broadband provider, the ISP, changes your IP as needed. Some change customers' IPs daily at 5am for example, others change them after a variable period of time. The only constant is that they will change. There are two main reasons: contention ratio and hosting restrictions.
ADSL by the way stands for asymmetric digital subscriber line, indicating that the up and down speed are different. On the lowest speed of DSL, which is 512kB or 'half-megabyte' broadband, the download speed is 512kB and the upload speed is often 60kB. On 1,024kB or one-megabyte DSL, down / up speeds are normally 1MB and 120kB. Up to 24MB DSL is available in many cities, with even faster speeds in some areas.
SDSL
SDSL stands for symmetric DSL, which is 'business broadband'. IPs are static, since a business may need to host services, and so they pay more for the facility. Contention ratios are much better (but still in effect).
The reason that a static IP is needed for the hosting of services is because the numerical IP is your address on the Internet, and that address needs to stay contant or people cannot find you. There are two common exceptions to this, but nevertheless a static IP is preferable for some hosted services.
Domain names
One exception to the need for a constant, static IP is the DNS or domain name service. People prefer human-readable names, not numbers, and therefore locate their resources at example.com and not 274.37.39.827, because humans have analog-based memory systems, not digital, and cannot remember a series of numbers reliably. But a network cannot function with 100 million-plus addresses with human-style names, so numbers are used in order to create an efficient digital address system. The problem then becomes how to equate one with the other, especially as the equivalents are constantly changing. You want to go to example.com, but its actual global address is 173.46.38.184 or similar. The answer is the DNS system, which tells you (in practice your browser) where example.com is actually located digitally. The central servers know what real address the human-readable name is at, and where exactly that digital address is physically located, and the route you need to go to get there. Your browser gets this information in a fraction of a second every time you go to a new website that you haven't visited recently - and the speed and efficiency of DNS is one of the wonders of the web.
DynamicDNS
The other common exception to a static IP always being needed for hosting on the web is that you can now sign up to a DynamicDNS service, which automatically finds the current IP for your site my-example.com and tells the web where you are. Good domain registrars provide this for free.
This means that even when your ISP changes your IP, as they will sooner or later, others can still find your hosted services. ISPs don't like you hosting services, though, on what is essentially cheap broadband, because it means you will be uploading much more than the average customer - and upload capacity costs them far more than download bandwidth. This is one of the main reasons they try and restrict your ability to host services such as websites and data storage on their consumer DSL service - they prefer you to pay extra for their business plan.
Contention ratio
This is the ratio of actual network equipment capacity at the ISP to the number of customers. There is never enough equipment to physically supply network services at full speed to all the subscribers, as it is not economic to have such a capability since most customers will not be using the service fully at any given time. Therefore equipment is switched around as necessary to support subscribers as they utilise more of the service. The ratio of customers to equipment is commonly 50:1 (spoken as 'fifty to one') although on a premium service it may be as low as 20:1, perhaps even 10:1 if you pay enough.
On dial-up Internet, which is still used by rural and coastal customers as there is no plant (cabled supply) for many such customers yet even in the smallest and most highly-industrialised countries, the contention ratio is worse and can be as high as 100:1, which is another reason dial-up Internet is so poor.
With dial-up it may be the case that modems are switched in or out for customers so that in some cases they will not be able to receive any service at all, but on a broadband service the effect of the contention ratio is simply that at peak times there is less bandwidth, so speeds are lower. In other words you may pay for 2MB broadband (which is the full theoretical download speed of that deal) but at peak times you might only get 1MB download speed.
Cable TV IPs
With cable TV / telephone / Internet service, the connection is still DSL although there are some differences to phone line DSL. Firstly, the IPs are still dynamic, but called sticky IPs. This is because they change far less often than phone DSL IPs, as the contention ratio is better (although still in effect). It means that an IP can last for months before it is changed. The bandwidth is potentially better for all customers as well, since the service comes into the building on a coaxial cable, which has much higher bandwidth than the small phone line twisted-pair cable.
This is also why modems and routers are different for cable or phone DSL. A phone line DSL service needs just one box for the router (the part that supplies the service to different PCs around the building) and the modem (the part that communicates with the outside world), as the connection is a phone jack. The two distinct functions of modem and router are combined in one box.
A cable TV-based service however needs two boxes, a modem that connects to the street cable, which is 'coax' (the same class of cable that goes to your satellite or TV aerial), and is owned by the cable company since they specify it and set it up; and a separate router that supplies the service around the building, and that you own. You can't swap a phone and cable 'router' for this reason.
How to get a new IP
An Internet IP is assigned to you by your ISP (Internet service provider). As we have seen, this number can change. You can find your IP by many different methods but the easiest is probably just to go to a website that tells you - search 'find your ip' to locate these websites.
On phone broadband you can get a new IP by rebooting your router. This can be done by accessing the router management and choosing disconnect, then reconnect; or by a software reboot. If you don't know how to access your router on the network, just switch it off, wait ten seconds, then switch it on again.
A cable router is a different prospect because you may not be able to get a new IP even by rebooting, since IPs are sticky - they change when they expire. You can try switching off both router and modem for two hours and then reconnecting, although occasionally a shorter power down may work. When reconnecting, first switch on the modem and leave for two minutes. Then switch on the router, and you should be back up.
With a dial-up modem, every time you connect, you get a new IP.
On ISDN, which was an intermediate technology used between the eras of dial-up and broadband, you cannot disconnect the terminal box for more than 15 minutes or the service shuts off. ISDN can still be used where the only option is dial-up, as it works at extended distance from the telephone exchange, unlike DSL. The max speed is 125kB and although this is just a fraction of the slowest broadband speed, it's still a lot faster than dial-up, which although theoretically is 7kB, is more likely to be 5 or 6kB in practice. And where the phone company digitally splits the service to two subscribers, as they often do when there is a plant shortage (not enough street cable) - and usually without telling the subscribers - then speed is halved. This is called a DACS splitter.
ISPs with one IP for all customersIf you want to get a new web IP for some reason, you can normally just reboot your router to achieve this. But in some cases this won't be possible, and you are stuck: there are some ISPs who issue the same IP to all customers, since this prevents them from hosting any kind of service. AOL and Hughes.net are examples - all their customers have the same IP on the web. Obviously, their IPs are different all the way into the ISP's equipment, otherwise they could not be differentiated on the network - but to the outside world, all customers are at one address.
It's fair to say that this arrangement sucks, if you are anything other than a very basic home user. On the other hand, this is what you have paid for, and is therefore the deal you signed up to. To get a new web IP you would need to use a proxy server, though this is only of use for browsing, and cannot help if you need to transfer files directly to another PC using on-PC FTP servers at each end such as the Core Micro-FTP server, or via a mini HTTP server such as HFS. In these cases you are obviously not a basic home user, and should sign up for a real broadband service. Hughes.net customers though might be restricted by the fact this is a radio service and therefore specifically for remote dwellers.
Your PC's IP
Every PC has a 'local IP' - an address used within the machine itself, which is normally 127.0.0.1 - but this is only used for traffic within the PC. For example if you have a server application like XAMPP installed on it, because you only have one PC and want to use that as both server and client, perhaps to build websites with. This works but is not optimal, server software work ideally needs two PCs.
Your network IPs
On your home or office network, the IPs are set by your own router. Even if connected to the Internet, that would have no effect on your network IPs - the ISP for example cannot influence your own network IPs.
Common IP ranges that are employed by routers, in order of likelihood, include:

• 192.168.0.1 through to 192.168.0.10 (or higher)
• 192.168.0.101 through to 192.168.0.110 (or higher)
• 192.168.2.1 through to 192.168.2.10 (or higher)

Your router docs will tell you which apply to you. Alternatively, access the router control panel via your browser, and look it up in there. Routers (ie the modem router that connects you to the Internet and supplies the service to the other PCs in your home or office) all have a remote-accessible management panel; switches and hubs (simple jack boxes with more sockets to extend a network) don't. If you are connected via a hub to your router, the hub will be transparent and you'll just see the router control panel when you access it via the correct IP.
How to connect to your router control panel
To connect to your router, or indeed to any other device on the network -like the other PCs - you need to know their IP on the network. PCs can interconnect without your intervention because they have software to do this, but to get into your router control panel you'll need to know its IP.
Even when you have no idea what it is, it's easy to find:
1. Using the IPs given above, run through the most likely candidates.
2. Search the web for 'belkin router ip' or whatever your router model is.
So first you can try the likely IPs. Start with 192.168.0.1, then 192.168.0.101, then 192.168.2.1 -- these cover more than 95% of routers. Enter those numbers directly into your browser address bar and hit Enter. A browser is an application that travels a network and retrieves information for you, so that's what's needed to get into your router.
If no luck, then search the web for your router IP. It would be rare not to be able to get it this way, but there are exceptions of course. For example if you have a USB LAN cable to link two PCs, perhaps where no router was available, then the IP range is likely to be unusual. Here is the starting IP number for a GeneLink USB PC-to-PC cable: 169.254.222.68 -- a little hard to guess that one!
Access the router control panel
OK, you've found your router on the network and you are looking at its login page. How to get in?
It looks as if you've never been here before, so the user and password will be still on the default values. Try these two first:
1. User: leave blank. Pass: admin.
2. User: admin. Pass: admin.
This covers many routers - perhaps 75% or more. If you can't get in, you have two options:
1. Search the web for 'belkin router password' or similar.
2. Do a hard reset, to return the router to default values, maybe if you bought the router secondhand or otherwise lost the password.
Routers can be rebooted at three levels, in general. These can be used progressively, to reset the minimum amount of data to accomplish whatever job you are doing. The sequence is:
1. A reboot: this scrubs the web IP and little else. Power down - wait 10 seconds - power up.
2. A soft reset: this will scrub the net parameters and possibly the router password; you will need to re-enter all your ISP's connection details including the ISP password. Power down - disconnect from the power source - hold in the reset button for 10 seconds - power up. The reset button is similar to that found on many laptops, a 'secret' button to disconnect power and internal battery: there will be a tiny hole in the case, you insert a small probe such as a pencil tip and hold down the microswitch inside.
3. A hard reset: scrubs everything and you start from scratch. All settings are returned to default, including passwords. Power down - disconnect from the power source - hold in the reset button for 10 seconds - release the reset button - hold in the reset button again, and keep held in -reconnect the power lead - power up - release reset button after 30 seconds.
Now you are back on the default user and password, and should be able to login. Go through the different pages in the control panel and reset all your user data.
Use your own DNS IPs
While in here you can set up your own IPs for the DNS service, which is a better way of doing it than using your ISP's DNS IPs. These are the addresses that your browser goes to in order to find web resources.
The problem is that your ISP's information is typically between 12 hours and 3 days out of date, which affects your browsing speed; plus the route they set you on will use their own and their partner's networks instead of the fastest possible route; plus whenever the address is faulty in some way, they will serve you adverts; plus they build up a personal profile on you based on your DNS queries, which allows them and their partners to serve you personalised adverts. Essentially, this is a bad deal for you, and you can use an alternative DNS service to advantage.
Find the DNS IPs in the router control panel. There will be three entries, of which two will probably be filled with an IP. Replace the two entries and fill the third as well, like this:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
208.67.220.220
These IPs use the OpenDNS service, which is one of the many free DNS services out there. They don't serve you ads, but instead give you helpful hints when you enter the wrong URL. The global network routes they put you on are usually faster than your ISP's version. Most important of all, for some users, will be the fact that their DNS data is updated in real time, and correct to less than 15 minutes in most cases and less than a minute sometimes - this is very important for webmasters moving sites between hosts.
There are many alternative DNS services now, so you can search for alternatives should you wish to. All have some negatives since there is no free lunch, but OpenDNS is a good starting point.
IPv4 and IPv6
In the beginning, nobody had any idea that the Internet would become the world's most important international resource, or that there would be billions of users. That there would be more than 100 million websites by 2010 was inconceivable. Because of this, the numerical address system was too simple and therefore too limited in capacity - there just weren't enough numbers available. The current system, called IPv4, is fast running out of numbers, and a new system needs implementing. This has already been implemented in fact, but as yet its impact is low since there are few users who have consumer-level visibility.
There are about 4 billion addresses available on the current system, but although it sounds a lot, there are two problems here and one pertinent fact:

• 1. All the unused addresses are not available to be freely allocated, due to the block allocation system, which means that numbers of addresses in blocks are allocated to large-scale users and cannot be retrieved.
• 2. In any case, the total capacity would be exceeded at some stage even if 100% allocation efficiency was possible. That point is variously estimated as being anywhere from 2011 to 2020.
• 3. In the final analysis, the system fails when individual consumers cannot freely obtain an IP. That is already the case and therefore practical system capacity has already been reached.

Here is an example of an IPv4 address (the current / old system), and an IPv6 address - the new system:

• an IPv4 address: 192.0.2.235
• an IPv6 address: 1009:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:8459

How many IPs are there in IPv6 ?
The number of potential IPv6 addresses is so large that it cannot even be expressed sensibly in words, only in mathematical terms. However, because people keep asking this question, here it is:
(1) In figures: 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456
(2) In words: Three hundred and forty undecillion, two hundred and eighty-two decillion, three hundred and sixty-six nonillion, nine hundred and twenty octillion, nine hundred and thirty-eight septillion, four hundred and sixty-three sextillion, four hundred and sixty-three quintillion, three hundred and seventy-four quadrillion, six hundred and seven trillion, four hundred and thirty-one billion, seven hundred and sixty-eight million, two hundred and eleven thousand, four hundred and fifty-six.
(Rob Elamb)
(3) Or alternatively, a quote: "So we could assign an IPv6 address to every atom on the surface of the earth, and still have enough addresses left to do another 100+ earths. It isn’t remotely likely that we’ll run out of IPv6 addresses at any time in the future."
(Steve Leibson)
(4) Or as a realist would say of course, "Give it another 30 years and we'll be scratching our heads again, pal - the one thing humans are proven unable to remotely comprehend is the future".

The Top 5 Video Streaming Websites

Online web streaming is one of the most popular Internet activities. Whether you want to watch video from across the world, news recaps, TV shows, tutorials, or funny videos, you're guaranteed to find something you like at one of the top five video streaming websites.
1. Youtube.com
The most popular video streaming website, YouTube has thousands of videos on nearly every topic imaginable, all user submitted and free to watch. The videos are currently offered in widescreen format, though most videos upload retain the original 4:3 aspect ratio. In addition to widescreen, videos can now be uploaded and viewed in high quality.
Videos on Youtube are often short homemade movies, but many record labels are now releasing low-quality versions of their most popular music videos on the website. If you're looking for a recap of the latest sports game, news cast, or speech, Youtube is your best option.
Pros: Youtube offers 16:9 aspect ratio, high quality video playback, support for nearly every video format, a large audience for your videos, the ability to embed videos on a blog or website, video reply feature, customizable personal video page, the ability to limit video access.
Cons: While the website is wildly popular, it does have a few problems. There is an excess of spam comments, a video limit of 100MB, and only standard-quality videos can be embedded on blogs or websites.
2. Vimeo.com
Vimeo is a sophisticated, free video sharing website. Basic users are allowed to upload up to 500MB of video content per week, or pay for an account to upload more. Vimeo attracts a wide array of video artists, and is often used to upload short movies, skits, and portfolios. The website supports full HD streaming and widescreen format, as well as a wide array of video codec support, making it the ideal location to watch and share high-quality and HD personal videos.
Pros: Vimeo has an easy-to-navigate interface, the ability to create and moderate video groups, high definition video support, up to 1GB video uploads for premium accounts, community forums, and an artistic user base.
Cons: Because Vimeo is so frequently used to upload large movie files, it can take over an hour to convert a single video.
3. Metacafe.com
Metacafe rocketed to popularity with their page view money earning system. Many videos on the website are duplicates from YouTube, but in addition to that content, there is a wide array of video tutorials on many subjects, including DIY hacks, magic, and science experiments. If you're interested in making money off your video's page views, Metacafe is the ideal website to use.
Pros: Metacafe has a popular pageview payment system, which allows users to be compensated for their videos. In addition, videos can be downloaded with a link under the video or embedded on blogs or websites. The website has many high-quality tutorials.
Cons: Metacafe increased it's video resolution, and many of the videos are now pixelated due to up-sampling. Many videos are clones from Youtube.
4. Hulu.com
The first website to legally offer a wide array of free TV shows, Hulu was founded by NBC and offers dozens of free TV series, both current and off-air broadcasts. Some of the TV shows offered includes: The Simpsons, Family Guy, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Bones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Office.
In addition to offering TV shows, Hulu also has a catalog of movies available to watch, including such popular shows as: Spy Game, Liar Liar, Ghostbusters, Men in Black, and The Karate Kid.
Pros: Hulu videos can be viewed in 360p for slower Internet connections. Popular clips are available for recent and popular TV shows and movies. New series are available, with new episodes appearing up to a week after aired on cable. The website is completely free. Videos can be purchased and downloaded. A personal queue can be created for favorite content.
Cons: Videos can no longer be embedded in blogs and on websites, high definition video streaming is not available for most videos, and ads are displayed three or more times per video. Website is available to US residents only.
5. Veoh.com
Veoh is a video content website, but has made a name for itself by partnering with different companies to offer TV shows for free. Offering TV shows not available from Hulu, you can watch popular shows such as: The Big Bang Theory, Friends, According to Jim, CSI, and Everwood.
In addition to a large supply of free TV shows, Veoh also offers user submitted content, including animations, home videos, and funny clips.
Pros: Videos stream in higher quality resolution. The original video files can be downloaded and saved to a hard drive for later viewing. User submitted content can be embedded in blogs and websites, shared directly with friends, and saved to a personal favorites list.
Cons: Commercial videos  are only available for users located within the US.

More Streaming Site Options

For completeness here's a list I put together of over 40 additional streaming sites.  If you can't find something you like here, you are not really trying :>)

• www.Dailymotion.com: Dailymotion is similar to Current TV, and offers a wide range of random video content.
• www.Ifilm.com: A standard video streaming website.
• www.Megavideo.com: Mega Video is the video streaming service for Megaupload.
• www.Tudou.com: Tudou is a China-based video streaming website. If you can't find a video on YouTube, there's a good chance you'll find it on Tudou.
• www.Youku.com: Nearly a clone of Tudou.
• www.56.com: Nearly a clone of both Tudou and Youku.
• www.Crackle.com: More of an Indy/off beat TV shows and movie website, you can watch webshows and other shows you can't find on TV.
• www.DevilDucky.com: This website features favorite videos grabbed from many different sources and aggregated together. The website contains small videos, TV shows, movie trailers, news recaps, fan videos, and more.
• www.Break.com: This video website is marketed towards men, and has a list of daily video picks on their homepage. The videos are outrageous, funny, and short.
• www.Current.com: Currently in Beta, this website has a wide array of modern video content, and is very similar to YouTube.
• www.Newgrounds.com: An awesome and high quality website featuring user submitted satire, animation, and humor videos.
• www.Revver.com: You'll find a wide array of content on Revver, most of it high quality and serious. There video base includes interviews, skits, product reviews, movie reviews, animations, and tutorials.
• www.ZippyVideos.com: Another standard video content sharing website.
• www.ThatVideoSite.com: This website pulls the most popular videos from a wide range of websites and lists them all on the homepage for your viewing pleasure.
• www.StreetFire.net: This website has thousands of videos, most of them dealing with cars in some way.
• www.VidiLife: This website looks like a cross between MetaCafe and YouTube, and has thousands of random videos to search.
• www.NBC.com: NBC now streams dozens of episodes for free, including Heroes, According to Jim, and the Biggest Loser.
• www.Clipshack.com: This website features sort clips, recaps, and small videos of random content.
• www.Freevlog.com: This website is aimed at video bloggers, and offers a place for you to upload, view, and share with other video bloggers.
• www.BroadbandSports.com: Sports videos on all types can be found on Broadband Sports, including recaps, highlights, athlete videos, and personal sports videos.
• www.Flukiest.com: Flukiest is a social networking website, and has an impression video collection.
• www.MyVideoKaraoke.com: Do you enjoy karaoke? If so, this website is for you. There are hundreds of karaoke videos available.
• www.Phanfare.com: Phanfare is a unique video sharing website, as it is meant to be used with an iPhone, and makes uploading, sharing, and viewing mobile videos easier than ever.
• www.Sevenload.com: Sevenload is a sleek, professional-looking video streaming website with categories such as Music, DIY, Arts, and Politics.
• www.VideoBomb.com: The website is a basic, bland video streaming site with random videos.
• www.Blinkx.com: Boasting over 32 million hours of video footage.
• www.BigContact.com: Big Contact allows users to create their own channels, and offers several professional streaming channels for anyone to watch.
• www.Ourmedia.org: Our Media lacks a professional site, but has dozens of channels to search.
• www.Stickam.com. Stickam is a twist on the modern video streaming site - you can browse hundreds of live streaming video feeds and interact with the other viewers via a chat box.
• www.Trueveo.com: Trueveo streams content from dozens of different sites, including Hulu, Lifetime, and GQ.
• www.Videosift.com: Video Sift works very similar to the popular website Digg. Users add videos, and other users 'sift' through them, pushing the good ones to the top, while the poor ones fall to the bottom.
• www.ABC.com: ABC, like NBC, now offers a wide array of streaming videos, including full episodes of their most popular TV shows.
• www.Starz Play: Starz Play is offered from Verizon, and allows users to stream hundreds of blockbuster movies and the Starz TV channel for $10 per month.
• www.Archaeologychannel.com: The Archeology Channel offers hours of free streaming video based on culture, humans, and archeology.
• www.Open-Video.org: This website is a 'shared digital video collection', and has lecture, documentary, educational, and historical videos, as well as others, for free streaming.
• www.Videoart.net: This website only has about 2000 videos, but they are all artist in merit - animations, documentaries, galleries, narrative, etc.
• www.Archives.org: The National Archives streams footage of past events and old documentaries, including space documentaries from the 70's.
• www.The News Hour - http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/ - Miss an important news speak, coverage, or documentary? The News Hour has regular updates of free, streaming news coverage.
• www.Museum.tv: Docufest is an online video archive website with access to theater reenactments, historic video and radio streams, and interviews.
• vids.Myspace.com: Myspace TV offers a wide array of video content, including personal videos, vlogs, and TV recaps.
• www.UStream.tv: UStream TV is another live streaming website, allowing users to chat with each other while watching and participating in live video streams.
• www.Netflix.com: Netflix has free, unlimited video streaming for all their members, with a low membership cost of $5.99 per month.
• www.StupidVideos.com - As the name of the website suggests, don't expect to find enlightening videos here. However, if you're looking for some good laughs, there's nowhere better than Stupid Videos.

This article was contributed by Emma Best, from www.laptopical.com, a laptop news and review site

Best Free Audio / Video Format Conversion Program

Introduction

There are many different audio and video formats out there, and most devices (such as the iPod) and programs (such as Windows Media Player) will only take a few specific formats. A DVD or WMV movie will not play on an iPod, for example, without being converted into an MP4 file. Many commercial programs will do this conversion for you, but there are a few good ones that will do it for free. None of these programs are quite perfect, and they tend to fall into a few general categories: Device-oriented programs users have very easy-to-use settings and many device presets, but few (if any) user-editable settings. They are meant for converting audio and video so it can play on a portable device, such as an iPod. Custom-oriented programs have lots of settings and the ability to save custom formats, but fewer device presets and more complicated interface. They are meant for odd devices or compressing audio and video. Hybrid programs make compromises to handle both types of jobs well. Audio-only programs use their narrow focus to make the interface simpler. While some are better than others overall, which one is best for you will depend on what sort of program you need. Note: I don't own DVDs, so I'm not qualified to review DVD rippers. If you want to review them, or have software suggestions, leave them here.

Discussion

Device-oriented Programs Pazera Video Converters Suite is really a package of several separate device converters with a common launcher. Each converter is powerful, with several presets for device, custom tweaking/profiles, multiple-file support, all in a simple text-based interface. If you don't mind the launcher, you could effectively use it as a hybrid converter.   For even easier device conversion, there is Miro Video Converter. With just a dozen device presets and support for only one file at a time, it's a bad choice for power users. However, its brutally simple interface is newbie-proof, and conversion quality is on par with other programs.   Also recommended: XMedia Recode: Like an ugly Miro, but supports multiple simultaneous files and more devices. DVDVideoSoft Free: Pazera without custom tweaks; has neat tricks like Youtube downloading and video tweaking.   Hybrid Programs When iWisoft Free Video Converter starts, it launches your browser for an upgrade check. Fortunately, that's the only thing bad about it. Its interface is a little slow, but extremely clean, well organized, and easy to use. It has a complete and well-organized collection of presets, and supports making and saving basic tweaks, too. It even has a few pleasant surprises, such as a basic editing suite built in. In short, this program is an outstanding choice for most device conversion.   For the few exceptions (such as old phones and DVDs), FormatFactory is an excellent choice. It has presets for over 100 devices, converts to and from dozens of formats, and allows for advanced tweaking and custom profiles. On the downside, the sidebar-and-popup interface is garish and clumsy (though responsive and stable). Overall, this program is a good choice for power or device users who find iwiSoft lacking.   Also recommended: Ultimate Video Converter: Only handles single files, but simplest converter with both iPod and custom settings.   Custom-oriented Programs If you need to make complex, custom jobs, FFCoder is the standout choice for its coherence. Like most programs in this review, it has an excellent device preset list, the ability to convert multiple files at once, and a simple, sleek interface. Unlike them, it supports highly advanced configuration for each of the dozens of video formats and codecs, down to lighting and rendering settings. Despite a few dependencies (listed below) and a learning curve for any tweaks past the presets, this is the best converter for almost any power user, device owner or not.   Also recommended: MediaCoder: Has a solid, if fragmented, GUI. Wide format support. Not quite stable. XVID4PSP: Supports myriad tweaks. Impossibly fragmented interface. Solid AviSynth support. SUPER: Stabler than Mediacoder. Great for small, obscure tweaks. Has an annoying interface.   Audio-only Programs Pazera Free Audio Extractor is the audio-only program in the above-mentioned Pazera Video Converters Suite. It supports both video and audio input and output to many formats, and is slightly simpler than some of its sibling programs. Otherwise, it is perfectly identical.   Also recommended: Koyote Soft Free mp3 wma Converter: Slightly simpler interface, but clunkier.   Tested and not recommended: Koyote Soft Free Video Converter: iWisoft, but clunkier. Also minor sneakware. Actusoft Free Video Converter: iWisoft with bad presets and other minor bugs. Extensoft Free Video Converter: iWisoft style, but single-file only and with few presets Auto Gordian Knot: Limited valid inputs and advanced options, DivX/AVI output only. Oxelon Media Converter: Too few possible tweaks for a program with no device support. Any/Aura Video Converter: FormatFactory with less options. Quick Media Converter: XMedia Recode with garish interface. Videora/Audioro: Slow, limited batch support, seperate programs for audio and video. WinFF: Pazera without the tweaking, Quick Media Converter without the eye candy. HandBrake: Convert to H.264 files only, Windows stability problems. MeGUI: May have AviSynth, but has indecipherable settings and no presets

Related Products and Links

You might want to check out these articles too: Best Free Audio Editing Software Best Free Software to Cut, Split or Merge Audio Files Best Free CD Ripper Best Free MP3 Tag Editor

Quick Selection Guide

Pazera Video Converters Suite      Excellent presets, easy to use, custom profiles   Looks intimidating, separate programs for each output type, no advanced tweaks   http://www.pazera-software.com/products/vcsuite/   http://www.pazera-software.com/products/vcsuite/   29.7 MB    1.2    Unrestricted Freeware    NT/98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7   Portable

Miro Video Converter      Brutally easy-to-use device conversion   only one file at a time, no profile or generic tweaking, only MP4   http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/   http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/   6.9 MB    Open Source    2000/XP/2003/Vista/7, .NET Framework

iWisoft Free Video Converter       Simple polished interface, file and preset editing allowed, good device presets   Checks for updates on startup, requires WMP   http://www.iwisoft.com/videoconverter/   http://www.iwisoft.com/videoconverter/download-video-converter.php   8.7 MB    1.2.0    Unrestricted Freeware    NT/2000/XP/Vista/7   Portable version available [1]

FormatFactory        Stable, many device presets   eBay ads and toolbar nag, too many presets, interface annoying   http://www.formatoz.com/index.html   http://www.formatoz.com/download.html   21.5 MB    2.30    Unrestricted Freeware    NT/2000/XP/Vista/7, .NET Framework

FFCoder       Solid preset list, highly advanced tweaks, sleek interface   Dependencies, no installer   http://teejee2008.wordpress.com/ffcoder/   http://teejee2008.wordpress.com/ffcoder/   24.4 MB    0.99.0.0   Non-Commercial Freeware   2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/7   Portable   Requires .NET and AviSynth

Pazera Free Audio Extractor     Great presets, supports many input and output formats, easy to use, custom profiles   No advanced tweaks   http://www.pazera-software.com/products/audio-extractor/   http://www.pazera-software.com/products/audio-extractor/   2.5 MB    1.3    Unrestricted Freeware    NT/98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7   Portable

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