Archive for the Computer General Category

Please be aware of phishing websites.

May 23, 2007 by gpstevens.

As a friendly reminder to my readers and friends, please do not click on, or respond to emails from websites threatening that you need to update your account information on ANY website that needs to know your personal information and or passwords or credit card info. Thos sites are almost 100% false. Delete them! Dont even click on the link. Don’t answer any phone call that wants any personal info from you regarding any personal info about an online account that you may have created. Always keep in mind that there are people out there that have nothing better to do but steal from you and they can in fact wipe you out financially. Always be suspicious, protect yourself, and remember if it sounds to good to be true it probably is too good to be true. Consider yourself warned. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via email at gpstevens@gmail.com.

Posted in Computer Basics, General Discussions, Computer General, Science & Tech, Computer Help, Main Posts | Print | No Comments »

Do you trust Yahoo?

May 3, 2007 by gpstevens.

yahoo

Many times when I work on peoples’ computer I notice that alot of people have installed the yahoo toolbar. Unfortunately the Yahoo tollbar adds a whole lot more to your computer than you probably want to know. I’m not going to go into a long dissertation about it but I found an article you might find interesting, and if I were you. Uninstall the Yahoo toolbar immediately.

 

Send this to all of your friends.

Yahoo playing both sides!!

Mike Healan
June 2, 2004

As many of you no doubt have heard, Yahoo! recently released a new toolbar which they claim detects and removes spyware. The toolbar uses technology licensed from Pest Patrol, the vendor of a popular antispyware product.

Unfortunately, it turns out that Yahoo! has decided to set the toolbar to ignore all so-called “adware”. The toolbar forces the user specifically to set it to seek out adware.

Screenshot of Yahoo Toolbar courtesy of Ben Edelman
Click for full screenshot

The reason for this decision appears to be the business relationship between Overture, which is owned entirely by Yahoo!, and the Claria corporation, which creates and distributes Gator. As it turns out, Yahoo!, through Overture, provides 31% of Claria’s entire annual revenue.

A Yahoo! spokesperson tried to deflect the issue by stating that they use Pest Patrol’s antispyware technology, which itself makes a distinction between “adware” and “spyware”. However, Pest Patrol’s software does not ignore “adware” either by default or as an option. This change was made entirely by Yahoo!

The spokesperson also tried to portray the decision as one giving choice to the user. In fact, the user has the choice already when they see the results list. The user can choose which software to remove and which to leave alone. Unless, of course, they forget to check the box for adware and then they end up with no choice at all, in the matter of adware.

Yahoo! is playing both sides of the issue, with users caught in the middle. Yahoo! could legitimize the activities of such companies as Claria, WhenU.com, Lop.com and coolwebsearch.com. These are all companies who spend significant effort trying to portray their software as “adware”. In fact, the practices of all of these companies have come into question numerous times. In Utah, for instance, Gator and WhenU.com’s advertising and installation practices are illegal.

This is an unfortunate situation. Yahoo! needs to decide whose side they are on, their users or the parasites. I would encourage all users of this toolbar to express their opinion to Yahoo!. This is a beta test after all and they are soliciting opinions from their users. I say we should take them up on that offer.

Posted in Computer General, Science & Tech, Computer Help | Print | No Comments »

The Slow Computer. Part 2

February 4, 2007 by gpstevens.

Computer

 

Over the past several months or more I have noticed a trend when I work on people’s computers. The most common frustration is that the computer is running slow. Many people think the solution is to re-install the operating system or re-format. While re-formatting will definately solve the problem, most of the time it’s not necessary. Think of your computer as a car or truck. The more weight you have to pull, the more stress you put on the engine and the slower the rate of acceleration.

I’ve noticed that more and more people are using browser add-ons, like the Yahoo toolbar. Now the Yahoo toolbar is nice if you really need it but most people don’t. The Yahoo toolbar adds on more crap than most people ever really use. Think about it. Do you really need the Yahoo personals button or the stock market tracker? Add on the weather and sports and on and on, and just with this simple example you can see how with just the Yahoo toolbar alone the load just got alot heavier.

Then there are those toolbars that you never even wanted, they just showed up one day. This is a classic result of spyware infestation. The most common unasked for toolbar I see is the My WebSearch bar. Most people I talk to have no idea where it came from and have no clue how to remove it. Some tool bars are so insidious you need a spyware removal tool to uninstall them like Ad-Aware or Spybot Search & Destroy. Most of these toolbars can easily be removed by going to: Start>>Control Panel>>Add/Remove Programs.

While your in the Add/Remove programs list, take a look and see if you see any programs that the computer maker put in there that you don’t even use. Like AOL for example. Besides the normal windows updates and things like Adobe Acrobat reader etc., chances are if you don’t recognize the name of something on that list you probably don’t use it and therefore don’t need it installed on your computer. It’s just adding more weight to the load. In addition to those things look for games or other applications you may have installed but don’t play or use anymore, get rid of them.

Another thing you can do to help prevent your computer from running slower is don’t download every cute little thing you see. Some examles of this are: 10,000 smileys, Bonzai Buddy, Incredimail, Cool Web Search (major spyware), any products made by Gator or GAIN, or any other sort of browser add-ons like toolbars or assistants. 99% of the time you get alot more than what you asked for.

I could go on for hours about this but I want to cover one more critical thing.

Antivirus software.

Many computers come with Norton anti-virus software already installed. Norton is a great anti-virus or AV program. In fact it’s probably the #1 AV on the market, but it comes with a price most people can’t afford and that is it’s use or abuse if you will of system resources and memory. Using Norton AV is like strapping a 800 pound gorilla on the back of your computer. Now I understand that many of you like Norton and swear by it but you have to keep one thing in mind. Can your computer handle Norton AND everything else. Sure the computer ran fine with Norton BEFORE you added all of your stuff. Now your computer is trying to carry the Gorilla+Yahoo toolbar+…. Get my point? But don’t just take my word for it, here are a couple of reviews of Norton from PC World website:


For some strange reason, Norton decided to commit professional suicide by making its historically best sold product a resource hog in 2006. My relatively new Centrino laptop with 756 MB RAM drasticaly slowed down after installing 2006. For a while I was not aware why it was so. Eventually, Google searches revealed the NAV 2006 to be the source. After UN-installing NAV 2006 , the PC immediately gained its previous speed. I never though getting rid of a premium AV product would make me happy. Now, I am using critically acclaimed and “free” AVG anti-virus with its minimal resource usage. Intererestingly, I had been using NAV since 2000 and all older versions of Norton AV used to be great products. It is said that NAV 2007 will not have the same problems since Norton decided to listen to its customers. Nevertheless, I won’t get to try it. Also, you will need to go to Norton website and download and run Norton’s removal tool if you are installing this over the older versions of the NAV. Otherwise, NAV has this bad habit of not wanting to get out of your PC, even after the uninstall. I am now glad MS will no longer provide Kernel access to Symantec.


horrendous. the ONLY thing i wanted was antivirus SCANNING and PROTECTION. akin to the mcafee v-shield, norton autoprotect from my previous norton AV version, 2004, was fine…onintrusive and efficient, popping up only when a threat had been detected or to notify me when and why an internet script had been blocked.but this new “norton protection center” is the worst thing known to man. it forces you to DL all the windows updates - even if you uncheck the windows update component, it still attempts this every startup (unless you CTRL + ALT + DEL, task manager, processes, and end the process wuauclt.exe :) that’s good lookin out ppl, trust me). it insists on running the protection center and a bunch of system processes that CANNOT be “ended,” and there is no option to disable protection center. it schedules automatic scans at inopportune times, drags down memory and RAM, and is overall negative.i used to get by with four programs to fix EVERYTHING that could ever go wrong on my computer… jay loden’s aimfix, webroot spysweeper, norton AV 2004, and registry mechanic. norton is attempting to do all of these in one, which would be nice if actually accomplished, but not at the expense of 90-95% of my processor’s capability.one of the best things about AutoUpdate was the ability to make it ManualUpdate and do it whenever. Despite turning it off, stuff still gets downloaded on my comp all the time WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.Thumbs down, 1/5 on this product.

These are just a few tips on how to keep your computer from slowing down. Always remember to keep your windows up-to-date with windows updates. Keep your spyware definitions up-to-date. Keep your Anti-Virus definitions up-to-date. Run a scan at least once a week. Check to make sure your Hard disk does not need to be defragmented at least once a month. Burn your music to CD’s and then delete the music from your hard drive. Uninstall unused programs. Read! Read! Read! Read as much information as you can before you download anything. Before you download something do a google search on it to make sure it’s legitimate and worth it, a lot of times there is something better out there. Don’t just get something because it’s advertised on a web site. Some products offer a trial version so you can check it out BEFORE you buy it.

Lastly, be nice to your PC and your PC will be nice to you.

 

Posted in Computer Basics, Computer General, Computer Help | Print | No Comments »

War against Spyware

January 3, 2007 by gpstevens.

Spyware Stoppers

Renegade programs can slip onto your system in an instant–and they can be maddeningly difficult to banish. Our tests reveal the most powerful tools for fighting back.

 

 

Illustration: Doug Fraser

Not long ago, Web- and e-mail-borne viruses were a computer user’s worst enemy. Though viruses and worms still cause more damage in compromised or lost data, a newer menace, popularly known as spyware, steals users’ productivity and peace of mind. The “spyware” label can apply to legitimate but annoying programs that users consent (perhaps unwittingly) to have installed on their PCs, or it can describe programs that install themselves without permission. Both types of applications can drain your computer’s resources, slow your Internet connection, spy on your surfing, and even forcibly redirect your Web browser. For the purposes of this story, we’ll call the former category adware and the latter spyware. Adware clearly spells out its intent, comes with an uninstaller, and can be readily removed from a system. Spyware, in contrast, installs itself surreptitiously and can be nearly impossible to remove without assistance.

A crop of anti-spyware programs has sprung up to provide that assistance. We evaluated ten current anti-spyware utilities designed to detect and remove spyware and adware from PCs, looking at their rates of detection, scanning speed, ability to prevent unwanted applications from installing themselves, and ease of use. We were pleased to find that a couple of the programs did a very effective job of cleaning an infected system and preventing new infestations with effective real-time protection.

PC World tested seven products in the $20 to $40 range from big and small vendors: Allume Systems’ (formerly Aladdin Systems’) Internet Cleanup, Aluria Software’s Spyware Eliminator, Computer Associates’ ETrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware, InterMute’s SpySubtract Pro, McAfee’s AntiSpyware, Sunbelt Software’s CounterSpy, and Webroot Software’s Spy Sweeper. In addition, we tested two popular free programs–Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware SE Personal and Safer Networking’s Spybot Search & Destroy–and a third free program that operates very differently but no less effectively, Merijn.org’s HijackThis. (You can get all three free products here.) We did not include HijackThis in our charts because, unlike the others, it does not scan for infections. We also tested one product in beta, Microsoft’s new Windows AntiSpyware, which was until late last year Giant Software’s AntiSpyware. (See “Future Windows AntiSpyware Looks Like a Winner.”)

Click here to view full-size image.

We pitted the anti-spyware utilities against 45 adware and spyware programs we’ve frequently run into in our work. These 45 applications created 81 separate files and processes–which proved a challenge for our apps to remove completely. Spyware infections can begin with a single installation of advertising-supported software. Often, the adware alerts the user to its intentions and the user willingly makes the trade-off in exchange for access to the free program (or blithely clicks the agreement without reading it). But although many adware programs seek your approval prior to installation, not all are so obliging. And even the free application that promises only limited advertising can morph into a system full of spyware by downloading and installing third-party applications.

Adware varies considerably in how it gets on your system. Two common search toolbars we encountered, Slotchbar and WinTools, did not show an End User License Agreement (EULA), in which adware typically declares that it may install additional components. These two installed without our consent and proved the most difficult to remove, using multiple processes that reinitiated one another when anything tried to delete them.

In contrast, the common adware applications WhenUSearch (a search toolbar) and Bonzi Buddy (a desktop companion that offers search assistance) presented easily understandable EULAs prior to installing and provided an effective uninstaller through Windows’ Add or Remove Programs utility.

Posted in Computer General | Print | 1 Comment »

How Computer Viruses Work

December 28, 2006 by gpstevens.

How Computer Viruses Work

Computer viruses tend to grab our attention. On the one hand, viruses show us how vulnerable we are. A properly engineered virus can have an amazing effect on the worldwide Internet. On the other hand, they show how sophisticated and interconnected human beings have become.
For example, experts estimate that the Mydoom worm infected approximately a quarter-million computers in a single day in January 2004. (Times Online). Back in March 1999, the Melissa virus was so powerful that it forced Microsoft and a number of other very large companies to completely turn off their e-mail systems until the virus could be contained. The ILOVEYOU virus in 2000 had a similarly devastating effect. That’s pretty impressive when you consider that the Melissa and ILOVEYOU viruses are incredibly simple.
In this article, we will discuss viruses — both “traditional” viruses and the newer e-mail viruses — so that you can learn how they work and also understand how to protect yourself. Viruses in general are on the wane, but occasionally a person finds a new way to create one, and that’s when they make the news.
When you listen to the news, you hear about many different forms of electronic infection. The most common are:

Viruses - A virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs. For example, a virus might attach itself to a program such as a spreadsheet program. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs, too, and it has the chance to reproduce (by attaching to other programs) or wreak havoc.

E-mail viruses - An e-mail virus moves around in e-mail messages, and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in the victim’s e-mail address book.

Worms - A worm is a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself. A copy of the worm scans the network for another machine that has a specific security hole. It copies itself to the new machine using the security hole, and then starts replicating from there, as well.

Trojan horses - A Trojan horse is simply a computer program. The program claims to do one thing (it may claim to be a game) but instead does damage when you run it (it may erase your hard disk). Trojan horses have no way to replicate automatically.

Computer viruses are called viruses because they share some of the traits of biological viruses. A computer virus passes from computer to computer like a biological virus passes from person to person.

There are similarities at a deeper level, as well. A biological virus is not a living thing. A virus is a fragment of DNA inside a protective jacket. Unlike a cell, a virus has no way to do anything or to reproduce by itself — it is not alive. Instead, a biological virus must inject its DNA into a cell. The viral DNA then uses the cell’s existing machinery to reproduce itself. In some cases, the cell fills with new viral particles until it bursts, releasing the virus. In other cases, the new virus particles bud off the cell one at a time, and the cell remains alive.

A computer virus shares some of these traits. A computer virus must piggyback on top of some other program or document in order to get executed. Once it is running, it is then able to infect other programs or documents. Obviously, the analogy between computer and biological viruses stretches things a bit, but there are enough similarities that the name sticks.
What’s a “Worm”?
A worm is a computer program that has the ability to copy itself from machine to machine. Worms normally move around and infect other machines through computer networks. Using a network, a worm can expand from a single copy incredibly quickly. For example, the Code Red worm replicated itself over 250,000 times in approximately nine hours on July 19, 2001.

A worm usually exploits some sort of security hole in a piece of software or the operating system. For example, the Slammer worm (which caused mayhem in January 2003) exploited a hole in Microsoft’s SQL server. This article offers a fascinating look inside Slammer’s tiny (376 byte) program.
Worms use up computer time and network bandwidth when they are replicating, and they often have some sort of evil intent. A worm called Code Red made huge headlines in 2001. Experts predicted that this worm could clog the Internet so effectively that things would completely grind to a halt.

The Code Red worm slowed down Internet traffic when it began to replicate itself, but not nearly as badly as predicted. Each copy of the worm scanned the Internet for Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers that do not have the Microsoft security patch installed. Each time it found an unsecured server, the worm copied itself to that server. The new copy then scanned for other servers to infect. Depending on the number of unsecured servers, a worm could conceivably create hundreds of thousands of copies.

The Code Red worm was designed to do three things:

Replicate itself for the first 20 days of each month
Replace Web pages on infected servers with a page that declares “Hacked by Chinese”
Launch a concerted attack on the White House Web server in an attempt to overwhelm it
The most common version of Code Red is a variation, typically referred to as a mutated strain, of the original Ida Code Red that replicated itself on July 19, 2001. According to the National Infrastructure Protection Center:
The Ida Code Red Worm, which was first reported by eEye Digital Security, is taking advantage of known vulnerabilities in the Microsoft IIS Internet Server Application Program Interface (ISAPI) service. Un-patched systems are susceptible to a “buffer overflow” in the Idq.dll, which permits the attacker to run embedded code on the affected system. This memory resident worm, once active on a system, first attempts to spread itself by creating a sequence of random IP addresses to infect unprotected web servers. Each worm thread will then inspect the infected computer’s time clock. The NIPC has determined that the trigger time for the DOS execution of the Ida Code Red Worm is at 0:00 hours, GMT on July 20, 2001. This is 8:00 PM, EST.
Upon successful infection, the worm would wait for the appointed hour and connect to the www.whitehouse.gov domain. This attack would consist of the infected systems simultaneously sending 100 connections to port 80 of www.whitehouse.gov (198.137.240.91).

The U.S. government changed the IP address of www.whitehouse.gov to circumvent that particular threat from the worm and issued a general warning about the worm, advising users of Windows NT or Windows 2000 Web servers to make sure they have installed the security patch.

Posted in Computer General | Print | No Comments »

Is it better to turn the computer off or leave it running all the time.

December 28, 2006 by gpstevens.

Is it better to turn my computer off when I am not using it or leave it on all the time?

This is one of those questions where there is no single right answer. In other words, it depends on how you use your computer.

There are at least three situations that force you to leave your computer on 24 hours a day:

You are on a network, and the network administrators back up files and/or upgrade software over the network at night. If that is the case, and you want your machine backed up or upgraded, then you need to leave it on all the time.

You are using your machine as some sort of server. For example, HowStuffWorks has a machine that creates the images for the How Webcams Work article. It needs to be on 24 hours a day. If your machine acts as a file server, print server, Web server, etc., on a LAN (local area network) or the Internet, then you need to leave it on all the time.

If you are running something like SETI@home and you want to produce as many result sets as possible, you need to leave your machine on all the time.
If you do not fall into any of these categories, then you have a choice about whether or not to leave your machine on.
One reason why you might want to turn it off is economic. A typical PC consumes something like 300 watts. Let’s assume that you use your PC for four hours every day, so the other 20 hours it is on would be wasted energy. If electricity costs 10 cents per kilowatt-hour in your area, then that 20 hours represents 60 cents a day. Sixty cents a day adds up to $219 per year.

It’s possible to use the energy-saving features build into modern machines and cut that figure in half. For example, you can have the monitor and hard disk power down automatically when not in use. You’ll still be wasting $100 per year.

The argument for leaving your computer on all the time is that turning it on and off somehow stresses the computer’s components. For example, when the CPU chip is running, it can get quite hot, and when you turn the machine off it cools back down. The expansion and contraction from the heat probably has some effect on the solder joints holding the chip in place, and on the micro-fine details on the chip itself. But here are three ways to look at that:

If it were a significant problem, then machines would be failing all the time. In fact, hardware is very reliable (software is a whole different story, and there is a lot to be said for rebooting every day).
I don’t know a single person who leaves the TV on 24 hours a day. TVs contain many of the same components that computers do. TVs certainly have no problems being cycled on and off.
Most vendors will sell you a three-year full-replacement warrantee for about $150. If you are worried about it, spend some of the money you are saving by turning your machine off and buy a service contract. Over three years, you come out way ahead!

Posted in Computer General | Print | 2 Comments »

|