Random Access - Thoughts on Home Office Computing

Virus - False Positive [Solved] The file rsaenh.dll: Win32.Zhelatin

2010-03-02T22:13:00.000+11:00

A customer called me in today when his Windows XP system would not allow him to log in.

The message was "A problem is preventing Window from accurately checking the license for this computer. Error Code : 0x80090006"

The error appeared to be coming from the WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) spyware that Microsoft stealthily installed some time ago...

Ultimately the culprit turned out to be Clamwin Antivirus falsely identifying the file rsaenh.dll as a virus and moving it to the quarantine folder.

Moving the file back to C:\WINDOWS\system32\ and rebooting solved the problem. I used an Ubuntu Live CD to view the Clamwin logs, Identify the problem and replace the file. Strangely, may of my customers use Clamwin and have not reported a problem. Since I usually advise them NOT to install Microsoft WGA perhaps they have escaped the problem.

The issue has been reported on the Clamwin site and may already be resolved.

Windows 7 Passes Vista Sales - No Competition, No Surprise!

2010-02-09T18:45:00.001+11:00

Recent news stories and a podcast on the subject have got me thinking, and a little steamed up on the subject of the "Acceptance" of Windows Vista and now Windows 7.

The "Acceptance" of Windows 7

The stories all go that while customers "Accepted" vista slowly, they are now "Accepting" Windows 7 and Microsoft is forgiven for the catastrophe that was Windows Vista.

What everybody seems to be ignoring is that (almost) nobody bought Vista as a software package and upgraded their PC, they simply walked into a retail outlet and looked at new computers. So what where the options? Oooh let me think... Yes, it was Vista then, and it is Windows 7 now. There just is NO choice for the consumer. Dell does offer a few models with Ubuntu Linux in some countries, but you will never find one in a showroom. Early Netbooks had Linux, and may where sold, but Microsoft plugged that hole with its monopolistic methods. Now The Asus web site displays a page saying its netbooks are "Better with Windows XP".

So Vista achieving 10% market penetration in 2 years was largely because that many new PCs where sold. For the first year XP still outsold Vista. The rapid uptake of Windows 7 is more about people buying new computers than anything else, coupled with the fact that Windows Vista was so bad ANYTHING would look good this time around, and Microsoft have gotten it right this time, and put out a pretty good operating system. Companies are now being forced to upgrade XP on existing infrastructure because it is no longer supported by Microsoft so Windows 7 will sweep up some market share there also.

But Is There A Choice?

But let's not lose sight of the fact that most consumers do not even know there IS a choice. They buy a computer with whatever operating system is loaded by the manufacturer and they keep it until it is ready for the junk yard. Most people working in the IT industry are in commercial environments and don't realise the number of people still using Windows '98. I have even seen Win '95 computers running and being used by people who do not use the Internet.

The "acceptance" of Windows is because the Microsoft marketing machine sees to it that Windows is pre-installed everywhere. If people where able to see machines side by side, Linux with a full suite of working applications, Windows with its array of trial versions of Office, anti-virus, graphics and movie editing software, all for a fee or crippled, I think Linux market share would take off. People would choose to take the free, functioning system and save themselves some money. They SHOULD also get a discount for the value of Windows 7.

The growing installed base of Windows is not a tribute to Windows 7 or Microsoft, it is the simple product of PC sales.

Breakfast at McDonalds - A Lesson in Bad Customer Relations

2010-02-07T17:06:00.000+11:00

Recently I have been working across the road from a McDonalds, and sometimes drop in for breakfast, despite not really liking McDonalds food. It is just there, and reasonably fast.

Breakfast at McDonalds...

Yesterday I went in and ordered four breakfast items. These days McDonalds prepares food as it is ordered. Orders go onto a computer display, and anyone can assemble the next order as the freshly prepared components appear. I saw my order beginning to be prepared behind the scenes and stepped back to allow others to place orders.

Enter - The Manager
A this point the young manager of the store decided to serve a few customers himself and stepped to the register next to the one I was waiting at. He took orders, but instead of filling the next order on displayed on the monitor, he grabbed anything he needed to fill the order he had just taken, giving his customers priority over the rest of us. Food prepared for the person ahead of me and my own order where diverted into bags and handed instantly to the customers being served by the manager. After a couple of minutes he stepped back, having served 3 people and left. By this time the Hash browns had run out and the young lady serving me sheepishly had to tell me there would be another two minute wait for my hash browns.

The result was the manager felt good at being able to show the juniors how good he was, and perhaps impress a pretty customer. The young staffer who served me was embarrassed, and I was delayed and annoyed enough to write this. The net value to MacDonalds was negative, as I will be less inclined to rely on McDonalds for quick service.

And A Honked Off Customer
The Lesson we can learn from this is that we must treat all our customers equally. Playing favorites can be dangerous, especially when others find out, and in this high-tech world, they will. Of course if we have different service levels and certain users pay extra, that is different, but be sure that family, friends and the loud "Squeaky wheel" customers do not get special treatment at the cost of others. My friends at Flying Solo (I have no business relationship with them) , a web site dedicated to small businesses have some suggestions on good customer service here. Ray Kroc new these rules, McDonalds knows them, but a little more time on manager training might be in order.

Internet Explorer flaw used to Hack Google Mail Accounts

2010-01-22T12:28:00.000+11:00

The attack by Chinese hackers on Google mail accounts belonging to persons of interest to the Chinese government have been widely reported by others. That attack included more that Google mail accounts, it also targeted a number of military contractors in the U.S.

The common link is an exploit of yet another flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer. After initial denials Microsoft has now admitted the flaw, and is working to patch it. In the meantime they have published an advisory on how to work around the problem on their web site.

A number of Governments including Australia, France and Germany have issued advisories to users to stop using Internet Explorer.

I have urged people to switch to Firefox for years. As the IT Manager at the University of Sydney Security Service I disabled IE and switched users to Firefox beginning with the Beta 0.9 version, and had few problems. I have offered to install Firefox on the computer of every customer, and many have accepted the offer.

Complacent and Non-technical Users

One of the biggest problems with Windows and Internet Explorer is that to many computer users, Windows is the only operating system and Internet Explorer (IE) IS the internet. The concept of using another browser than IE, which came pre-installed is simply to much effort to even understand.

These same non-technical users are also easy prey to phishing scams and viruses via e-mail.

Geeks Arise, Help the Users Throw Off Their Chains!

It is easy for those of us who know how to secure our systems to roll our eyes and laugh at the average person as they flounder around accepting advice from equally clueless sales staff in department stores and spending money on software that cannot fix already compromised systems, and is often worse than the threat.

It is the responsibility of the geeks and technically minded to help those around them to understand that internet security IS important, it DOES affect everybody and it CAN be fixed. A few steps, simple for those of us with technical minds can provide a reasonable level of security for these non-tech. users.

John Sawyer on the Dark Reading "Evil Bytes" Blog posted his six things to do to secure your computer. I agree with most of these suggestions, although I would put switching to Linux as a real possibility for many average users. I would also suggest if you want to go to the extent of using item 6, a Virtual Machine is better, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

I will discuss some of the plugins that make Firefox a safer browser soon.

Windows 7 launched Today

2009-10-23T23:22:00.001+11:00

Microsoft has launched Windows 7 the much needed update to Windows Vista. It will probably go on to become the most successful Windows ever, as Microsoft is unlikely to remain relevant in an on-line world

There are many new features, and Microsoft is a master at making things slick and good looking. They unveiled a few surprises, including a Kindle app that will allow Amazon Kindle customers to read their books on Windows 7 PCs.

I am pleased to see that a number of the best interface features have been copied from the Linux Gnome user interface. A larger audience can now share the innovations of the Open Source Community.

My experience with Windows 7
My experience with Windows 7 (The Beta) was positive. It installed easily, and handles most of my hardware. Unfortunately it had trouble with a printer and Skype phone that run perfectly under Windows XP, but this will probably be resolved in the final release.

Will I buy Windows 7?
Probably one license, but the restrictive licensing of Windows will force me to run it in a Virtual Machine so I do not have to replace it every time I upgrade my hardware, a common occurrence in my office.

FreeNAS USB drive

2009-08-29T19:14:00.001+10:00

I am trying to install a 40Gb USB drive as some extra storage on my FreeNAS storage device. I does not want to work, and it has been raining all day.
Two trips out to the backup site in the rain, and no Joy, for 40Gb, I can wait...

Windows logs user off Immediately [Solved]

2009-07-31T15:48:00.006+10:00

I normally don't comment on Viruses and other problems here. There are plenty of web sites that cover this sort of thing in great detail, and with greater authority than me. However I have had to recover two computers with this problem in the last week, so I will publish a quick note about it here.

The symptom is a Windows XP computer that starts up with the "Welcome" screen, and shows the login of the user. This will happen even if the computer normally just starts straight up with the user desktop. Clicking on the user name will cause the computer to log in, show the desktop wallpaper for a second or so, and then log off, and back to the welcome screen.

The problem is caused by the Adware.BlazeFind Malware. It installs itself in Internet Explorer, and displays ads. It has been around for a long time, but seems to be catching people again. Most anti-virus software finds and removes it, but because of the way it installs itself, the symptoms mentioned above occur.

There is no way I have found to log into the infected and then disinfected computer, because of the removal of the file userinit.exe, and/or the malware file wsaupdater.exe. The simple solution is to find another way to boot the computer (A Linux live CD, or a BartsPE Windows Live CD, or you could remove the HDD from the computer and install it as a slave drive in another computer) and copy a good version of userinit.exe back to Windows\System32\ as both userinit.exe and wsaupdater.exe.

It is quick and simple. Then run a virus scanner to remove any hidden problems. This is a short summary, but the fix works and gets the user back into their system.

Goodbye to my Linksys WRT160N Wireless Router

2009-07-12T17:14:00.011+10:00

I reported recently on the trials and tribulations that occurred around my purchase of a Linksys WRT160N Wireless Router. I got the router working by going back to a previous version of firmware.

I recently discovered that my Windows computers (virtual machines, actually) have not been getting Mocrosoft updates. I played around for awhile and discovered that it was the now notorious Linksys WRT160N Wireless Router that was blocking the Windows updates. I bypassed the router to download the updates, and decided to sort out the router issue once and for all.

Finally, and with little warning, Linksys has released a new version of firmware that is supposed to solve the problems. I decided to install the update ASAP.

I installed the upgrade using the built in menu option. The upgrade stopped at 98% and did nothing for quite some time. Then the browser page went blank. eventually I rebooted the router, and it was totally bricked. It would ping, and seemed to start up, but I was unable to log into it, and it was not working as a router at all. This, apparently is not an uncommon problem.

I tried a number of methods to bring the system back, there are several web sites with suggested methods to re-install the firmware. One of the best sites is DD-WRT.com. I tried for several hours without success. Eventually I packed up the router and returned it. I bought the Linksys Router because Cisco, who owns Linksys put their name on the device, and I assumed a company like Cisco would be jelous of their brand, and ensure a reasonable product.

I will not trust Linksys again. This product has been known to be seriously defective since last december, and is still on the market in July. Their response to hundreds of requests for information and support on their forums has been abysmal.

I am now running a D-Link DR-615 wireless router. It has only been running a few days, and I have been to busy to do a full setup, but it is running faultlessly. More on that Later...

A New Router, And Problems out of the Box - Linksys WRT160N

2009-06-05T21:33:00.007+10:00

I have used a D-Link DI-624S storage router for a couple of years now. I received a lot of criticism, much of it well founded. The ability to share printers and USB drives was a good idea, but it lost something in the implementation. Recently it died completely overnight. In the evening, the internet was offline, but the internal network was functioning. In the morning, I rebooted it, and it just did not come back. The same day I replaced it with the well reviewed Linksys (Cisco) WRT160N Wireless Router.

The WRT160N is a thing of beauty, looking more like a jet or flying saucer than a wireless router. But it also performs most impressively. It has outstanding wireless coverage. I walked around with my Asus Eee connected to the wireless network. I could get two doors down the street, or out into the back yard and to the back fence with full wireless network speed. And with 802.11n it is faster than any WiFi card I have at present.

It seems there is a problem though. It began to drop out, with DNS errors (site not found, etc) and I had to do some research. It appears the the router has a security vulnerability, and in an attempt to fix it, Linksys upgraded the firmware and introduced a bug. here I go again. I seem to buy the lame ducks!

The vulnerability is reported by Secunia here

Then solution was to install the older version of firmware 1.2.02_008. A web page showing how to do this has been posted here . Once the firmware was downgraded, and the DNS settings changes, the router began to work fine.

I will watch Linksys for a firmware upgrade, and hope they post one soon. In future I will spend more time reading the newsgroups associated with these products. It was a quick decision because I needed to get back on the air.

I am very pleased with the Wireless performance of the WRT160N, but not with the lack of comment or action by Linksys. I know it takes time to produce and test firmware, but there should at least be some comment on the problem.

How about it Linksys, are you taking any responsibility for this? The issue has been documented and discussed endlessly on your OWN FORUMS and still, four months later this defective product is still in the stores.

Windows XP Update - Microsoft Does not Make it Easy!

2009-04-23T21:13:00.004+10:00

I have written about problems updating older versions of Microsoft operating systems on my "Learning to Love Linux" Blog. See the article here as Learning to Love Linux: Windows XP Update - Microsoft Does not Make it Easy!

Enjoy

Where does The Outlook PST file get saved?

2009-04-22T16:10:00.007+10:00

One of the most frustrating operations in Windows is re-installing after a crash or virus infection. Re-installs and recoveries are all to common with Windows, and I always have to go back to the internet to find where Outlook and Outlook Express store their data files. So here it is.

On the XP, Outlook puts the Outlook.pst file is in:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Outlook Express saves its data in a number of files with .Dbx extensions They are stored in:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{a-long-guid-number-with letters-and-numbers}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\*.dbx

There a number of files, and they all need to be copied. In my installation I lost the address book, but this covered all mail.

I was urprised to see that Outlook and Outlook Express use different file formats. My background has largely been in the use of Outlook in corporate environments, so Outlook Express has been a learning curve. It has been a while since I used Outlook without putting it on a separate partition, but I assume this is a fairly consistent location across versions.

I hope this helps you, If not, at least I will know where to look next time I have to mov.e or re-install Outlook!

If anyone can help with the address book locations it would be appreciated.

Enjoy! - Phil Stephens
Edited 28/04 - Outlook Express file format info updated...

Power Failure Kills My Main Windows Desktop

2009-04-10T15:09:00.001+10:00

I have been pretty quiet for the last few weeks. On March 23 we had a power failure. This is not unusual in Tasmania. However after this failure my dual boot Windows XP/Ubuntu PC would not find the Windows partition that I was using when the power went.

I trued to repair it with the Windows XP recovery console. It reported that it could not read the partition. I tried a Live bootable BartPE XP disk. Same result. The Ubuntu partition booted fine, could see the Windows NTFS patition??? and allowed me to copy files to a USB drive. I decided it was time to break the yoke. I installed Ubuntu 8.10 as the only system.

Problems ensued.

When I installed Wine (I have a CD based database application I REALLY need to use) any attempt to run Wine apps resulted in a total lockup. sometimes + 1 would give me a terminal for a shutdown, but mostly, it was a total hang. A little searching on the Internet made it clear that if wine hangs there may be video card issues.

I made a decision to switch my server and workstation. I won't go into details, but the server allowed an external video card to be installed, the workstation,which has a great CPU but a rather bad motherboard (it was the only replacement I could buy when the original failed) would not. This is a small/home office network, performance is not an issue with a maximum of 4 users

It was an all night session, with 700Gb of data being copied around, but at 4AM I had a server and workstation running.

I am currently writing this on a 1.6Ghz workstation with 1Gb of RAM. It has Ubuntu 8.10 and a host of other applications. I will write about some of the challenges over the next few weeks.

Just let me say the the biggest issues, audio for Skype and Audacity are solved and printing CDs on the Cannon printer/scanner are solved. Virtualbox gives me access to the Philips Skype Phone via a Windows 2000 VM with the software for both installed.

More on the issues and lessons later

Enjoy!

Making Blogger Templates adjust to Page Width

2009-04-10T14:25:00.007+10:00

It will come as no surprise to readers that this Blog is created by Blogger. It is, after all, shown on the links and in the bar across the top of the screen. I edit in Blogger, and then the pages are loaded onto the serentycomputing.com web servers automatically.

My one big issue with the Blogger system has been that it caters to the lowest common denominator. the 640 x 480 screen that was the original IBM VGA screen resolution. 640x480 went the way of the Dodo years ago. But then it came back with netbooks like the Asus Eee PC. I own the Eee 702, with a screen resolution of 800x480.

This makes a web site difficult to design. You do not want to make it impossible to browse with a netbook, but using as much screen space as possible is a goal. Blogger uses a format (for almost all templates) the uses a narrow format suited to 640x480 but is a narrow "neck tie" down the middle of the screen on better monitors.

I was inspired by a Youtube video about customising your blogger template. It gave me clues, and I went fishing in my template file. If you use blogger, when you edit a post or manage your dashboard you have a tab for "Template". This site is based on the "Rounders 3" template. It narrows the page to fit 640x480 browsers. The "Neck Tie" I spoke about above.

First be sure to copy the content of the template to a safe place. save a copy to your local machine using a text editor.

I went through the template and deleted all references to "url(http://www.blogblog.com/rounders3/corners_cap_xxx.gif)" these are the grapics that round the corners of each box on the screen. If you want a fixed format, you can fix these, rather than deleting, but I simply removed them.

Then I found @media all { and changed it from a number of pixels to 95%.
I found #sidebar { and changed it from 220px to 25%
I changed #main { from 485px to 72%

The result is a "Rounders 3" template that re-sizes to fit the client screen size. It is not perfect, but I am very please with the result.

I just HATE wasting pixels!

Enjoy!

How to Stop, Prevent, Defeat, Eliminate, Expunge SPAM Forever!

2009-04-09T12:23:00.010+10:00

I am sure that heading caught your attention. It is possible to eliminate spam from your in-box quite easily. A nice side effect is that you also get a permanent, searchable archive of all incoming and outgoing e-mail. You don't need to change your e-mail address and this works with almost any e-mail server. It also gives you the ability to access your e-mail from any computer, anywhere.

And it is quite free.

Use Google Mail (Gmail) as your filter. Gmail has best filter I have ever seen. Gmail uses computer software, of course, but the real secret is the 80 million pairs of eyes that use Gmail. The users. If you have spam filtering software on your email client, It has to be trained by you. Each time you mark email as spam, the system looks for similar messages. With Gmail, when you mark a message as spam, Google flags that e-mail across the whole system. I assume they wait for a few hundred or thousand people to identify that message as really spam, but then it gets moved into everyone's spam folder. There is a video by Google here.

The result is that I probably see a piece of spam in my inbox about once every two weeks. I am happy to mark it as spam and contribute to keeping the system clean. There are also no false positives. I have never found a message I want in my spam folder.

So how do you do it?

You must create a new Google Mail account. Just go to Google Mail and open a new account (or use an existing one, of course). Just follow the prompts.

Then either have your e-mail forwarded to your new Gmail address, or have it collected.

Forward your e-mail to Google mail.

If you have control over your mail server, re-directing is easy. My mail server has a Smartermail web interface. I simply set it to re-direct my mail and then delete them.

Or, have Google mail collect it for you.

If you cannot access your mail settings, Gmail can collect you mail using POP, the same protocol that your mail client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) uses to download mail. Go into the settings tab of gmail, then Accounts, and click on “Add a mail account you own” in the “Get mail from other accounts” section. Step trhough the form, supplying the email address, the user name, password, POP server details. This information is the same as you use to download mail to your e-mail client. Just look in your account settings.

If you have more than one e-mail account, you can have g-mail label each incoming message with the name of your e-mail account.

Now your e-mail is being sent to Gmail. Send some mail to yourself to test that it is working. Gmail has a brilliant interface, and many people just stop at this point and use the gmail interface for all their mail needs.

Make outgoing (sent) mail look like it is coming from your e-mail address.

The next step is to tell Gmail to send mail showing your real e-mail address. This is done from the settings page again.

In settings > Accounts click on “Add another e-mail address you own” Enter your name, and your e-mail address.

To activate this option, Google will sent an e-mail and you must reply to it, to prove you actually own that email address. You can then set that address as your default, and all mail sent will show your actual e-mail address.

But what if I want to use Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc?

Go to the Gmail accounts setting again. Click on the “Forwarding & POP/IMAP” tab. In POP download, click on the “Enable Pop for mail that arrives from now on” button, and save.

Then Go to your e-mail client, and set it to point at Gmail.

This is the last step.

Item 3 on the page described above has links to specific instructions for most e-mail clients.

Go into the account settings in your e-mail client, and change the settings to download your e-mail from Google mail following the instructions provided .

That's all folks!

The benefits include having a Gmail interface accessable from any computer. You keep your official or professional e-mail address and you now have a backup of your e-mail.

An added benefit is that if you use Google desktop, it can search and index all your mail on the Gmail server. This gives very fast search and indexing of all your mail.

Log into Gmail occasionally and have a look in the spam folder. Eventually you will give up, and Google will delete all spam more than a month old automatically.

Enjoy! - Phil Stephens

Windows Vista Endless Reboot after Upgrade (2009)

2009-03-20T12:23:00.004+11:00

It seems the old Febuary 2008 "Endless Reboot" issue is affecting some Vista users again with the latest Microsoft updates. I have not been hands-on with one of the victims, so can only offer some advice from the web.

The "Tech Support Forum" has some advice, see the 4th post on this thread and also a more rambling and technical discussion here at BleepingComputer.com.

The thrust seems to be the need to rename the pending.xml file in c:\windows\winsxs\ from the command line.

Another possibility would to boot a live Linux or BartsPE XP from the CD drive and attempt to change this file. I am not sure how permissions will go though without trying it.

Regards, Phil Stephens

Windows Out, Ubuntu Linux 8.10 in

2009-03-14T21:15:00.001+11:00

My benchmark for a risky Linux installation is my Toshiba Tecra A4.

It was new to me 4 years ago, a gift from friends at Security & Property Management Services (SP&MS) in Sydney when I left the University of Sydney.

It is a beautiful laptop to use, with a big screen, and the usual compliment of USB ports, PCMCIA slots, WiFi, Modem, External monitor, etc.

Unfortunately, it has a less than standard implementation of most of these devices. With Windows XP, the drivers make everything work fine. Unfortunately it is a different story with Linux.

I am keen to make Linux my standard desktop, but I need a computer that WORKS, and Linux, on this machine has,largely, not worked.

I fell in love with PCLinuxOS 0.92 because it made much of the system work, but PCLinuxOS 2007 broke much of that. Sabayon Lunux 3.4 made most of the hardware work, but the need to compile almost everything from source, taking hours, and small but annoying issues made me abandon that. I tried many Linux distributions, to no avail.

Something That Works

Finally, Ubuntu 8.10 made all of the hardware work. I got WiFi, Ethernet, ACPI power management, dual screen, Skype audio, USB, Virtualbox, Wine, basically everything working on my long time dual boot system. I decided to install Ubuntu 8.10 as the only system.

As usual with Linux, not everything went to plan.

My first install, from midnight to 2am went well, and I left the computer updating as I went to bed. I made a typo trying to install Windows fonts, and found a computer almost unusable because many prompts, web pages and Google documents now showed space instead of text. I started again.

I re-installed Ubuntu. I installed Wine, Audacity, VLC, VNC, Firefox 3.0.7, Thunderbird, Virtualbox, Kompozer, LibDVDCSS, Win32Codecs, Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6 using the script at tatanka.com and other bits and pieces.

But Then, The Other Shoe Dropped

The install looked perfect. I updated everything, destroying what remained of my monthy download limit from Netspace.net.au. Not a problem, they shape the network speed until the next pay period rather than charging outrageous excess fees like Testra.

Then the other shoe dropped... No audio. I think the mistake I made was installing with the headphones and mic plugged in. Sound out did not work, recording caused crashes, Skype would not work, generally a very annoying situation. After hours of installing and copying I was not disposed to try another installation. I booted the live CD and copied the settings over. Currently everything works except recording and Skype Audio functions, and I believe this is just a configuration issue.

I have copied Virtualbox VM's and other software across and installed. The Watchtower Library 2008 installed perfectly under Wine and Winetricks from www.kegel.com.

I have a script to mount two shares from the server and printers working.

I am pleased, and I am sure the audio will be working soon. It shows that the best Linux install still has some annoyances, but is getting much better.

The entire install, other than partitioning, only involves about 4 questions and is fast, about 20 minutes beginning to end including almost every piece of software the average user will ever need. Windows installs can take hours, have many questions and do NOT include any useful software. Installing software can take the best part of another day, and require constant user interaction.

Linux does not (yet) rule, but will soon, probably in the next two to five years. More on other issues and fixes later! - Phil S.

(images by (1) Andre Mason (2) Kordite (3) Gonzalo Valenzuela)

Identifying and Reporting a Malicious Web Site

2009-03-08T00:36:00.007+11:00

This evening I stumbled across a classic malicious web site. I was searching for information about a pen. I recently lost a much loved Rotring Trio pen, and was searching for some information. When I followed a link from a Google search I was confronted with a very windows looking dialog box telling me my computer was infected with a virus.

I carefully attempted to close it using the close button on the frame of the window. That just produced more messages, warning me of the dire consequences if I closed the window.

eventually I turned of Javascript and shut the offending web page down. But not before getting a very realistic, animated view of a "virus scanner" scanning, finding viruses an spyware and telling me to download a program to clean the infections.

Some of these dialog boxes were very realistic, this one especially would strike fear into the hearts of any Windows user.

What made this a less than heart-stopping experience for me was that at the time I was running Ubuntu Linux. Not only where the warnings about infections and registry problems not Linux problems, the "Windows Security Alert" was ludicrous in a non-windows environment.

If I had been using Windows however, it would have been much harder to detect the bogus nature of the messages. Many users would have clicked on the button, downloaded and installed the executable, and been in a world of hurt if they did not already have antivirus that would detect the malware.

I have written at length on my web site about what steps to take, and have written a white paper on the subject. It is a free, just send an email to sig@serenitycomputing.com and it will be sent to you.

What can you do about reporting a web site like this?

A quick search reveals that many of the sites that appear to be giving advice are themselves questionable. I felt strongly that I wanted to report this site somewhere. There are a number of sites where "Phishing" sites can be reported. These are sites that imitate a bank or other institutions web site and try to get your passwords. However reporting sites trying to infect visitors with viruses and spyware was a little more difficult.

So far I have found one. It is Malware Patrol who have a page where you can report one of these sites. They also allow their blacklist to be downloaded in a number of formats, including ones suitable for Adblock Plus (a Firefox addon) and Clamwin, an open source antivirus and ant-spyware program.

I have reported the attack site, and will use the blacklist to prevent sites such as this one from causing me more trouble.

I will look at setting up a hosts file on my Linux machine to prevent this kind of annoyance again. I have these measures already on my Windows computer, but will be updating it soon!

I would like to hear from anyone who has more place to report these malicious web sites. Please let me know what you do.

Enjoy!

Gmail is now Available While Offline!

2009-02-01T19:18:00.005+11:00

Google has quietly added (possibly) the most significant upgrade to its Gmail ever. It is now possible to access and read e-mail in Gmail while offline. To install this feature, go to the... OK I am confused. When I first heard about this it was necessary to go to the "Google Labs" tab and activate the feature from the (long) list of items. It was the first item, and easy to find. I activated it on my Eee netbook. Then I booted this computer, a Toshiba Tecra A4 and the item was a simple click on the Gmail top menu. Perhaps Gmail knew my previous choice, or perhaps it has been upgraded from the "Labs" tab.

It takes a while to synchronize (it is still running on the Toshiba) but as it goes you get indications of how many emails have been downloaded and synchronized. Currently It is telling me that if I disconnect now, I will "have access to emails dating back to September 15 2008"

I have no idea how ell it will work, or what the limitations will be. It may be impossible to create and edit new email messages, as it is not possible to create new Google docs. but there are ways around this. I keep a couple of blank Google Docs saved for this situation, perhaps the same will work in Gmail

The news is, Offline Gmail is a power shift of huge proportions. Microsoft owns the client based e-mail arena with Outlook and Outlook Express. An offline version of the excellent Gmail client and exceptional Gmail server system, with it's incomparable SPAM filtering system will be a potential giant killer.

Expect the unexpected!

Regards, Phil S.

Is Windows Really That Bad?

2009-01-30T19:25:00.005+11:00

This article was originally posted on my web site. That site will be shut down shortly, so I am re-posting here.

EDIT: I have now established a new hosting agreement, so the site will continue to operate.

It has often been said that Bill Gates' only real contribution to the world of computing is the realization that software only needs to be good enough. He and his products are pilloried every day for being slow, bloated, unstable and insecure. Every virus outbreak results in thousands of log entries and messages cursing Micro$oft Windoze and recommending that everyone move to Linux or Macintosh immediately. Are the criticisms well founded? I would like to go on the record as saying that while I curse Windows occasionally, it is, in fact a good functional environment. Why?

Reliability. "Windows is unreliable..." Windows really got traction with 3.1, in 1993 and then came 3.11 in 1993 with networking built in. It worked on a 386 or 486 PC with 4 or 8Mb of RAM. Every video, sound network card or other device required drivers. We spent hour praying over system.ini and config.sys files. It worked, but every program running had the ability to take control of the PC and not let it go. I probably re-booted my 486 PC four or five times a day. Usually a reboot lost whatever I was working on. Windows 95 was better, and each version of Windows has gotten better.

Today, Windows XP can run reliably all day. I use a laptop and can plug and play almost any device. I can burn a CD or DVD, play a movie, plug and unplug a USB HDD, Floppy, or Memory Stick. When I want to move the laptop I close the lid and the PC hibernates. I can lift the lid and the laptop re-starts, realizes the network cable is unplugged and starts the wireless network automatically.

As I write this I am in the lounge room watching a movie and talking to my network via Wi-Fi. I use a cordless mouse and am surfing the net with Firefox, saving this document to the server and watching 80 RSS feeds using Feedreader. I have a Word document open in the background, and a text editor with five documents open. This laptop has not been re-booted for about a week. When I am finished, I save my documents to the server and hibernate the computer. Is it perfect? No. It hung for several minutes when I installed a new RSS reader and asked it to look at my 80 feeds for the first time. Is it reliable? It is for me.

Security Issues. "Windows is full of security holes, even Microsoft admits it.." Yes, Windows has security issues. It is a victim of its own popularity, and a very poor web browser. Every operating system has flaws, but Windows, with the vast majority of desktops running it, has been the target for hackers for years. Before Windows, Unix faced many hacks, and was tightened up over time.

Microsoft has worked to patch Windows as flaws were uncovered. Some took too long, and Microsoft faced much criticism. But what is the situation today? Windows XP with Service Pack 2 is quite secure, but not perfect. The biggest weakness is the browser. Internet explorer was written to provide seamless use of Active-X controls and integration with the operating system. This has left a raft of vulnerabilities that can be worked around. The problem is that disabling the these features makes the browser less useful or seamless. Users do not want to lose the functionality. The solution is to use a better browser. I use Firefox.

A computer running Windows XP SP2 and patched regularly (an automatic process) is secure if the user uses a more secure web browser, and behaves intelligently. the problem is viruses and users.

Viruses and Users. My computer has not had a virus infection since new. I patch it, use the Firefox web browser and anti-virus software. The anti-virus software has never stopped an infection. It has found viruses in e-mails, but I don't open them anyway. Most computer problems are caused by users opening attachments, downloading and running trojan horses or passing private information to phishing sites. If user simply thinks before opening e-mail or downloading free software, they are likely to never have a problem. George Ou is currently suggesting that Anti-virus software is more of a security risk than it is worth and should be removed. I may even try it, I has not done much for me.

Windows is too Slow / Bloated. This usually comes from Linux users. I am not going to start showing benchmarks. The truth is that as users add more and more applications to Windows it slows down. But a computer running the version of Windows designed for it will perform quite well. If it is to slow it probably needs more memory. I assume that the Linux fans call Windows slow in the context of Windows as a server, because in my experience a graphical desktop on Linux is very slow to respond. Opening an application takes a long time, closing them just as long. I notice pauses in operation. They are probably related to the graphics engine, but Windows applications always seem more responsive to me. Is Windows bloated? probably, but modern computers have few limitations on memory and disk space, so is it an issue? Years ago we developed software with one eye on file size. If we could save 5kb of memory by using a different compiler we would. Today, RAM and CPU speeds are such that it is almost irrelevant. The big need is to get applications developed and running quickly.

The Conclusion. Window IS Good enough. It does what I want it to do. I don't need it to run for two years without rebooting. It works reliably, does not lose my work crashing constantly, uses every device I need. It is fast enough. It plays music, movies, and keeps going. I can find software that does everything I need. Linux and the Mac are both options, but the pain of moving to another operating system is huge. Finding drivers, learning new ways of doing things are time consuming, and require someone who is very computer savvy. The average user simply does not need the pain.

Just keep Windows patched, spend a few minutes reading a tutorial on viruses and other hazards, and enjoy yourself. - Phil Stephens

What is the safest place to save data on my PC?

2009-01-30T19:18:00.011+11:00

This article is a re-post of information originally posted on my web site. That sit will be shut down shortly, so I am re-posting here.

This question follows on from a conversation about a ZDNet article by George Ou on the same subject

A. The best way in my opinion is to have a separate disk drive in your PC, or a separate partition on your computer's disk drive.

Unfortunately this option has never been made easy by Microsoft. Since the arrival of Windows '95 and long file names, Documents by default have gone in the "My Documents" folder. This folder has been buried in various parts of the same disk that Windows is installed on. The drawback of this approach is that if the operating system system is corrupted or infected by virus or spyware, the only option on many cases is to format the hard drive and re-install Windows. Doing this will destroy any data on that drive, including "My Documents". In some cases the operating system can be re-installed over the previous installation, but often this will not work, and Windows insists on formatting the drive.

On my computers, if I have only one drive (like my Laptop) I always re-partition the drive and install Windows on the first partition (drive C:) and make the second partition drive E:. All my data is saved on Drive E: and is therefore safe if Windows wants to format drive C: during a re-install. If you are using Windows XP you can use the TweakUI powertoy available from Microsoft to set the location of "My Documents" under the 'My Computer > Special Folders' menu item.

If I can afford it, I add a second disk drive. The prices of disk drives are quite low, and this is the preferred option. The second disk should be made drive E: using the control panel 'Administrative Tools > Disk Management > Storage > Disk Management (Local)' right click on the second partition (or drive) and select "Change Drive Letter and Path" and set it to E:.

Why use Drive E: and Not Drive D:?

One day you will want to add an additional disk drive. If you have kept your data on a partition labeled D:, adding a new physical drive will push your data up to drive E: and the new drive will by default become D: This will confuse Windows and any programs installed on drive D: will fail to operate. This can be worked around in most versions of Windows, but it is just easier to keep the D: drive letter free!

Can I partition my Existing Disk Drive Without Losing the Data?

Yes, there are a number of tools that do this. I have used Symantec's Partition Magic successfully a number of times. There are several other tools, some free, but I cannot say I have used them myself. This a risky exercise, so if you use one of these tools, be prepared to have a problem, back up your data first.

Backups and Users.

Users are famous for only caring about backups after they have lost the manuscript of the book they have been working on for a year, or the last five years of their accounts because the disk drive crashed, or the operating system got corrupted or infected by a virus. The poor technician who comes to fix the PC is then blamed for being incompetent or ripping the user off because it will take him 4 hours to copy files from the damaged drive, if it is possible at all! I was once contacted by an accountant who had all his customer's data for the last 5 years stored on his PC, with a tape drive for backups, and only ONE tape that he re-used every week. When the computer crashed, you guessed it, the backup tape was worn out, and the data was useless. The answer is, Back up regularly and keep at least three copies. Sometimes you only find out a file is corrupted a couple of weeks later. If you do not have multiple copies going back a month or so, you can lose important data.

A couple of years ago this meant installing a very expensive tape drive or copying data to a string of floppy disks. Both options are painful, tape because of the cost, floppies because of the speed. I once had to back up a system to 110 floppies. NEVER AGAIN!

Today DVD writers are cheap, and re-writeable DVDs are only a dollar or so each. Set up the windows backup software to do nightly backups, and burn the data to DVD each week. I back up my data in three separate backups, User data, Shared Data and 'Scratch' a directory full of software installs every day except Friday I do incremental backups automatically. Each Friday they are automatically fully backed up in the early hours and then copied to DVD and taken off site. The backups are made to a different physical disk drive on the same PC. I pick Friday because it is the end of the week. If you are in an office environment, the office will probably be unattended over the weekend, so the loss of your PC to theft or fire is more likely on the weekend. Taking backups offsite on Friday means less work to recover your data.

Accessing E-mail Across Platforms and Computers

2008-07-18T12:12:00.001+10:00

One of the common problems associated with using multiple PC's or multiple operating systems is the problem of managing email clients. An e-mail sent from one client not visible when booting into another operating system. Downloading an e-mail in one client makes it disappear from the next application.

On a Windows only basis this can be gotten around by using a USB drive carrying a portable application like like portableApps Thunderbird. One day someone will present an option of a group of Java applets/applications that can do this, and we will have true cross platform office tools. at the moment this option is Windows only.

I am currently handling this by using Thunderbird with a configuration that connects to a common storage area. In my case I use a server for file storage. I made this work in this way.

Locate the profile folder:

On Windows Vista/XP/2000, the path is usually %AppData%\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\, where xxxxxxxx is a random string of 8 characters. Just browse to C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\ on Windows XP/2000 or C:\users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ on Windows Vista, and the rest should be obvious.
On Windows 95/98/Me, the path is usually C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\
On Linux, the path is usually ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default/
On Mac OS X, the path is usually ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/

Copy this existing Thunderbird e-mail profile folder to a shared drive. In my case I used a personal folder on my home server. It could be a shared partiion or a USB drive. Make copies of everything first, see my concluding remarks.

Boot Thunderbird with the “Manage Profiles” option:

on Windows: thunderbird.exe -ProfileManager
on Linux ./thunderbird -ProfileManager
On Mac OS X, hold down the Option key and double click the Thunderbird icon.

This will start Thunderbird with the profile manager. Create a new profile. In my case I called it “Faith” as that is the name of my server.

Select the folder that contains the newly copied Thunderbird data files.

In my case I also created a second profile for a flash drive. This allows me to copy the Thunderbird directory to the flash drive if I need to work away from the home network using my laptop. I copy it back once connected to the server again.

This setup allows me to connect to a common e-mail database from my laptop, and also from both Linux and Windows on the desktop development PC I normally use.

The server data directory is backed up every night, so the data is secure.

This is less portable that a PortableApps on Windows option, but it allows seamless cross-platform e-mail access in a network environment, or across platforms using the USB drive or a shared partition.

It is quite simple to do, my only advice being back up the entire profile directory before doing anything. Always have a plan B. While learning how to do this I deleted a profile, and that also deleted the data directory. It was a second profile looking at my main profile directory, so I lost all data and had to restore from the copy.

I now have only one complaint regarding Linux as a productivity tool. That is the seeming impossibility of making a Palm device reliably sync to a Linux computer. I have tried on a number of occasions, but always face the problem that it only seems to work once. The second attempt to sync data inevitably results in failure. I am sure it is possible, but I cannot find a decent tutorial on how th accomplish this reliably.

Regards, Phil Stephens

Microsoft Windows Update License Change

2008-07-17T06:27:00.003+10:00

While writing the previous entry I booted back into Windows, and allowed updates to run. I keep the Windows partition pretty much up to date and was surprised to see a new license agreement pop up for the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.
Like most people I don't spend a lot of time reading licenses, I figure I am getting shafted anyway, and move on. I did stop and read this one and was interested to find this...

"12. LIMITATION ON AND EXCLUSION OF REMEDIES AND DAMAGES. You can recover from Microsoft and its suppliers only direct damages up to U.S. $5.00. You cannot recover any other damages, including consequential, lost profits, special, indirect or incidental damages.
This limitation applies to
* anything related to the software, services, content (including code) on third party Internet sites, or third party programs; and
* claims for breach of contract, breach of warranty, guarantee or condition, strict liability, negligence, or other tort to the extent permitted by applicable law.
It also applies even if Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages."

I am no lawyer, but I think if I knowingly distributed software that damaged my customer's business by crashing or crippling their computers or causing loss of data they would look for more that $5 restitution from me. It is the reson I offer a No fix - No fee warranty on service work...

I guess being Microsoft is nice work if you can get it.

Enjoy! - Phil Stephens

Windows Update KB951748 breaks ZoneAlarm

2008-07-17T06:11:00.004+10:00

One of my customers contacted me yesterday regarding the failure of his dial-up Internet connection after installing a Windows Update. I talked him through winding his machine back to the previous "System Restore" point. His connection started working, and immediately he received an alert from ZoneAlarm regarding update KB951748.

I am not the first to report on this, CastleCops reported it here and the ZoneAlarm website now has a fix available for download here

This one cannot be blamed on Microsoft, the Windows ecosystem is just too large to test every combination of tools with every patch, but it makes me glad that I am now using Linux almost exclusively.

Enjoy! Phil Stephens

Don't Mount Computer Hardware Under the Desk.

2008-06-03T15:42:00.006+10:00

About 12 months ago I was interested by a blog post on Lifehacker entitled DIY under-desk gadget mount. This pointed to a how-to suggesting decluttering your desk by mounting all that messy computer hardware under the desk.

I liked the idea, and implemented a variation to mount an ADSL modem, D-Link DI-624S Wireless storage router and a 200Gb network drive under my desk.

My advice, based on experience is... DON'T, Heat Kills...

I wrote a review on the DI-624S storage router back in July 2007 and was very happy with it. Since then the storage capability has become patchy, reliability has gone to out the window, and I was on the brink or replacing it. I have modified that original review with a warning. I am about to write an apology as a follow up.

I live in Tasmania and only have a problem with heat in my (small) home office in the middle of summer. However as a preliminary to replacing the router, I removed it from the under-desk storage area and hung it below the desk. The broadband dropouts and network failures ceased. I have waited a week, and decided to re-try the USB storage device. I was able to connect and share the device, something that has been unreliable for months. The 200Gb drive is working fine after five days. I have pushed it, copying hundreds of Gigs of files in and out. Yesterday I streamed 3 movies to 3 computers on the network at 768Kbps while the router continued its duties with no problems for almost an hour.

I have now removed all devices from under my desk and fitted them to a vertical board on the back of the desk. Interestingly Lifehacker have also displayed a follow up entitled Under desk pegboard gadget mount redux similar to what I have now done.

Mine is not that pretty, but it works, and to date I have had 100% reliability with the cooler layout. I have placed the power supply components to the top of each device to aid in cooling.

More later.

Regards, Phil Stephens

Welland Lanshare Network Drive Review

2008-05-31T17:24:00.011+10:00

A couple of days a go I posted a review of this device on the web site .

One problem facing the small business and home office is the need for reliable access to shared data and printers. In Windows 200/ XP / Vista based networks, the answer is to use one computer, usually the one that is running most of the time, and share files from it. This creates problems when someone wishes to access files from another machine when the “server” PC is shut down.

I have written about the D-Link DI-624S Wireless Router /storage device. It is convenient but performance of the shared drive was always poor. I have installed a Welland LanShare network storage device to replace the DI-624 external drive. Please check out the full Welland Lanshare Network Drive review.