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  1. Member holistic's Avatar
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    As most of the XP users out there are aware there is a new virus/worm eating away. WELL SUPRISE SUPRISE.
    My only hope is the idiots at Redmond get some bad press from this but alas they will not. From what I have seen on the local media ,they are blaming a 'bunch of teenage punks'. Couldn't be farther from the truth, 'script kiddies' are too stupid to think up something as clever as what just hit. Kudos to the writers of this script ,a wake up for all but not the punch in the face most needed.

    Sadly this will happen again and again, as long as there remains a poor interface between chair and keyboard.Until this interface is removed there will be plenty of smiling clerks at the local repair shops.

    Mirco$0ft is of course to partially to blame for this, since their products continue to exhibit excessivly poor 'codemanship' . I run win98se on my main machine and it is stable(ish) with latest ( necessary ) patches and security fixes. No BSOD's since i have tweeked it. But then again, why did I have too. Why is the product so buggy.???

    My XP machine was safe because of my insane paronia to security.

    So that you (the chair/keyboard interface) don't get caught (again) i recomend the following.

    Get a good anti virus, firewall, spyware app and a small dose of paronia.

    AVG anti virus - good - free : http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php
    Zonealarm firewall - excellent - free : http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

    Learn how to use "MSCONFIG.EXE"

    Disable the 'preview pane' for you outlook express users.

    And for %&*#'s sake STOP opening every stupid email marked important no matter what it is unless you know who sent it.


    ][


    edit : duh - the fix

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823980
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  2. Feel better now that you blew off some steam?

    I think you are being a little harsh though. There are people that find computers confusing and I do not blame them. You can't expect them to understand what a buffer over-run in the RPC service means. Even more simple aspects such as ports can be confusing.

    As for Microsoft, you can't blame them for the Blaster Virus. Yeah, there was a flaw in the code, but they fixed it back in July. People just need to update their systems. But as I said before you can't expect everyone to understand what that means or how to do it.

    In short, this is just one of those things that happens. No one is really at fault (except the virus author). Or you could look at it from the prespective that everyone has a little blame. Whichever you rather.
    "A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct."
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  3. Member pyrate83's Avatar
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    Hey don't forget about Sygate personal firewall. I use their free edition of the software and am very pleased to know that my computer is safer than others out there. The software is very good and I don't think it should be overlooked either.
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  4. Member The village idiot's Avatar
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    Antivirus is over rated for some users. The past several years I have only had 1 virus, and that was in a file that had not been executed yet. I download all kinds of "things" from many different sources. You just have to know your source.

    For other users, it is a must have! Though normally they run a little behind the virus makers.
    Hope is the trap the world sets for you every night when you go to sleep and the only reason you have to get up in the morning is the hope that this day, things will get better... But they never do, do they?
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    Idiot,

    I'm not one of the other idiots you refer to, although not in those terms.

    I am kinda computer literate, and I do have a fully functional version of Norton AV, Firewall, Internet Security, etc, insttalled, and operational, and still get hit on occasion.

    I do not DL crap, I'm not into that, but I will go to a proprietors web site and DL a trial version.

    And, I will allow my mail to come thru my virus software, but STILL get hit.

    They are not stupid people.

    YOU, however, are one lucky SOB, to never have gotten any kind of bug.

    My advice is to get the best anti virus program you can, and set it for full time, automatic, protection, and update religiously, on at least a weekly basis.

    Norton updates on Wednesday, I don't know what McAfee's schedule is, but do it.

    Hey, you ain't Iron Mike, the bugs aren't keeping away from you because you're a hardass, it's just that you have been lucky, or you have a good virus program on your machine already, and are telling everyone "Don't worry, it ain't so bad as they say."

    Hell's bells, boy, it's worse.
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  6. Lost Will Hay's Avatar
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    Hello,

    Originally Posted by holistic
    Sadly this will happen again and again, as long as there remains a poor interface between chair and keyboard.Until this interface is removed there will be plenty of smiling clerks at the local repair shops.
    So, if I've interpreted your self confessed rant correctly, you believe poorly trained users are partly to blame for allowing these viruses to spread, right?
    Am I correct in my assumptions?
    Will
    tgpo, my real dad, told me to make a maximum of 5,806 posts on vcdhelp.com in one lifetime. So I have.
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  7. Member The village idiot's Avatar
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    I do indeed have virus software on my machine. And that is how I know I haven't needed it. When things get real "funky" I'll even set up a port scanner/logger and check things out. I used to run with a pretty rough crowd. All that taught me how to be careful. Mostly it is common sense. That program that seems too good to be true, normally is infected. That crack you might be looking for, suspect too. Demos from manufacturers are pretty safe. Email is the killer. And I don't get too much of that, that isn't filtered by my service providers. Good providers are starting to do now, it simply cuts down on their overhead. Scan it now, or watch megabytes fly out for no good reason. And I always run a firewall! Always!

    Oh yes. And never set your email/newsreader client to use HTML, text only. Just more trouble. GIFs can be bad, same with Flash exe files. Again common suspicion keeps things clean. Also patch things when you here about an attack, before you get attacked! When you let your guard down and rely on the virus scanner, things get dangerous.

    If you need a good port logger, I suggest GreedyDog. Just do a google search, that's where I found it. It's free, and seems to cover everything I have a common need to log. I also suggest Adaware, again do a search. For the truly parnoid, turn JAVA off in your browser. If that isn't enough, get a Mac! They have not been as widely targeted yet.

    Also keep in mind, this latest worm hit ALL versions of winderz. That goes back in time pretty far. this one is clearly the programmers fault. They should have found this long ago at MS. Just more slop.
    Hope is the trap the world sets for you every night when you go to sleep and the only reason you have to get up in the morning is the hope that this day, things will get better... But they never do, do they?
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  8. Some good general tips there!

    (1) Install antivirus software (e.g., Norton, McAfee) and keep it up to date
    (2) Install a fireware (e.g., ZoneAlarm)
    (3) Install Anti-Spyware software if needed (I personally simply don't install any proggies with spyware)
    (4) Don't use HTML in your e-mail client and don't use Outlook Express

    Regards.
    Michael Tam
    w: Morsels of Evidence
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  9. Member The village idiot's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Will Hay
    Hello,

    Originally Posted by holistic
    Sadly this will happen again and again, as long as there remains a poor interface between chair and keyboard.Until this interface is removed there will be plenty of smiling clerks at the local repair shops.
    So, if I've interpreted your self confessed rant correctly, you believe poorly trained users are partly to blame for allowing these viruses to spread, right?
    Am I correct in my assumptions?
    Will
    Not to speak for him, but that is the conclusion I came to. In a certain way I feel the same way. Poor user training does account for a lot of these problems. Not all, but better than 50%. And I believe that almost every user on this forum is in the better trained percentage. If you weren't, you wouldn't be able to make a DVD, let alone one that actually works.

    The largest onus falls on the ass that writes the virus. They are the ones that start the spread. Then the people who will open any attachment, or have their reader set to automatically open/run attachments, get infected. Those then infect more people who may or may not help them to spread. There are still people who haven't patched their machine for code red! What excuse will you find for them? These things are one reason MS went to the auto system update. At least then you stand half a chance at defeating these stupid things.
    Hope is the trap the world sets for you every night when you go to sleep and the only reason you have to get up in the morning is the hope that this day, things will get better... But they never do, do they?
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  10. Lost Will Hay's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by The village idiot
    Originally Posted by Will Hay
    Hello,

    Originally Posted by holistic
    Sadly this will happen again and again, as long as there remains a poor interface between chair and keyboard.Until this interface is removed there will be plenty of smiling clerks at the local repair shops.
    So, if I've interpreted your self confessed rant correctly, you believe poorly trained users are partly to blame for allowing these viruses to spread, right?
    Am I correct in my assumptions?
    Will
    Not to speak for him, but that is the conclusion I came to. In a certain way I feel the same way.
    I agree too.
    I also think women shouldn't wear skirts above the knee thus minimising the risk of sexual attacks and old people shouldn't be allowed to live on their own in case they open the door to bogus tradesmen who subsequently rob them of what little possessions they have left.
    Will
    tgpo, my real dad, told me to make a maximum of 5,806 posts on vcdhelp.com in one lifetime. So I have.
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  11. Chris S ChrisX's Avatar
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    I don't believe anti-virus programs cover everything regarding protection of the PC. This depends on the vendor, the product and how much does it cover.

    I've experienced an infection of the Nimba worm in one of my computers last year. That computer got the Internet Information Service installed for Web server purposes. The computer was so vulnerable of an attack by the Nimba worm with so many infected e-mail files all over the thing. Yes, 5,000 infected files.

    The point I am making is that Norton’s AntiVirus program doesn’t cover IIS in Win2000 if the web server is installed. This would apply to any worm attack in the system coming from the Internet or from another computer in the network.

    My advice is don’t install anything that would compromise the computer such as having Web Server not really in need, the ftp and mail servers and telnet installed not normally in use.

    It is recommended to upgrade the network permissions such as remove everybody access and disable guest accounts in folders in the NTFS hard drive.

    A business having servers and a web site, Norton’s Internet Security and AntiVirus programs isn’t suitable for them and they have to use the corporate firewall and antivirus from Symantec with every protection available in all areas.

    As a guide, Norton’s Internet Security and AntiVirus programs is normally for the small business and the home with just basic PC use.

    Having a server with OS Windows Server 2003 you need a much more and better protection such as Symantec's Enterprise solutions and they have various products available for the server.

    If an individual wants a personal webpage can create one for free using Yahoo or your ISP and this is a much better protection for your PC.
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  12. yeah, looks like another long week of trying to keep up with the patches.
    Just got this from our MIS department:

    ----
    REMINDER!

    Scans indicate that there are still a lot of machines that have not had "patch 1" applied to them. The sooner they are patched, the less likely corporate will be fixing them remotely and rebooting your system!

    As a heads up.... Supposedly, there are more virii on the way that will exploit previously advertised Microsoft vulnerabilities. It will most likely be necessary to apply more patches in the future. I believe that XXXX is looking into methods of applying appropriate patches as released, but do not have any more details at this time.
    ----

    I lost over an hour yesterday applying patches. Would it be considered cruel and inhuman to use all convicted virus writers as test subjects for new cosmetics? I would sleep better at night just knowing that the life of some poor bunny rabbit had been spared!
    Just what is this reality thing anyway?
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  13. contrarian rallynavvie's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Will Hay
    I agree too.
    I also think women shouldn't wear skirts above the knee thus minimising the risk of sexual attacks and old people shouldn't be allowed to live on their own in case they open the door to bogus tradesmen who subsequently rob them of what little possessions they have left.
    Will
    Holy slippery-slope, Batman

    I've only ever seen a problem with my parent's Dell, and that's because they didn't take the time to update virus definitions and Windows as often as I told them to. My PC has never had any problems with it other than a driver war between my audio devices once. I update every other week almost. The Mac I don't worry about so much, and that's what I use for my internet access since almost nobody writes viruses for the Mac. Then I share my downloads with my other computers.

    I only have dial-up available here which helps my situation a little, but as soon as I have broadband available here I have an old PII box that I'm going to configure to be my firewall. Anyone have any info on setting up a 24/7 Linux firewall machine?
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  14. Lost Will Hay's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by rallynavvie
    Originally Posted by Will Hay
    I agree too.
    I also think women shouldn't wear skirts above the knee thus minimising the risk of sexual attacks and old people shouldn't be allowed to live on their own in case they open the door to bogus tradesmen who subsequently rob them of what little possessions they have left.
    Will
    Holy slippery-slope, Batman

    I was being sarcastic, but by adding an emoticon such as this = I felt would make my point seem blase.

    Will
    tgpo, my real dad, told me to make a maximum of 5,806 posts on vcdhelp.com in one lifetime. So I have.
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  15. Originally Posted by vitualis
    (2) Install a fireware (e.g., ZoneAlarm)
    Does anyone know if ZoneAlarm Pro has a better firewall than the free version or does it just have more functions?
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  16. Banned
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    Vitualis,
    Have you a link to a site listing software that does NOT have any type of spyware in it?

    I recently changed to a new HDD, installed Win and my most used progs, ran AdAware, Spybot and The Cleaner, found 67 pieces of spyware, from Dataminers on down to tracking programs.

    I don't do KaZaa and the like, but still get this stuff. I don't know how you can be sure you don't install progs with spyware.

    Personally, I'm looking for a prog that will tell me what process is causing my machine to go into a feverish burst of activity on occassion. CPU will go to 30-40% and stay there, HDD activity light not lit, don't know what the hell it is.
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  17. Originally Posted by g_shocker182
    Does anyone know if ZoneAlarm Pro has a better firewall than the free version or does it just have more functions?
    It has more functions.

    You can compare here
    http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/comparison.jsp
    "A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct."
    - Frank Herbert, Dune
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  18. Member
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    Originally Posted by i_am_dave
    I lost over an hour yesterday applying patches.
    Where I last worked the web farm team had one guy who spent nearly all of his time patching the Windows servers (not just applying the patches, but testing them before putting them on production machines). He was able to keep on top of it - but just barely. What's more, most of their servers were NT4, which has been around long enough that a lot of the bugs have already been found and patched.

    The place before that had a corporate installation of Exchange and Outlook, because they used the Outlook/Exchange groupware tools (shared calendars and such). They had a worldwide address book with everybody in the entire company, which spanned 3 or 4 continents. The "i love you" worm absolutely killed them, but it taught them the value of putting automatic virus scanners on the mail servers. The truly sad thing? Six months after the "i love you" worm made big news we were still getting occasional "i love you" messages (the antivirus software stripped out the attachment, but let the message body pass through).
    A man without a woman is like a statue without pigeons.
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  19. Member holistic's Avatar
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    From Will
    .........you believe poorly trained users are partly to blame for allowing these viruses to spread..............
    To answer your question Will, YES - i do .

    M$ must also take the heat for their countinued efforts in putting 'buggy' operating systems on the market.

    If they spent less time ,putting stupid 'easter eggs' in their programs, and more time concentrating on the security and stability issues they may eventually have a decent product. XP was a good effort but still to much time was spent on the eye candy and little on the security.

    My comment about stupid users is based on my own "customer" base of - family ,friends, friend of friends, work associates, and neighbours.
    For example, just last night at work i got : "....my wife got a DVD and she cannot play in in the computer?..."
    "O ! says I , will it play in your standalone ? - you need a mpeg2 codec on the machine - do you have a software DVD player??"
    The light bulb eventually went off over this guys head - "maybe the CD ROM is faulty because i had this trouble before."
    "CD ROM ???? - wtf you need a DVD-ROM to read DVD's .............."
    Resolved .. but you see what is out there and I am sure you have experienced it also. Nice guy - but no clue.

    I don't expect people to know partition a drive with FDISK but i do expect them to know how to make a folder and rename it. After all windoZe does come with a help tutorial .But then again who reads manuals these days.

    As I said earlier, I have no sympathy for those that don't take the trouble to install a ANTIVIRUS, FIREWALL, SPYWARE DETECTOR, and learn MSCONFIG and how to NOT open evey cool email joke that comes their way.

    As mentioned by a previous poster
    ......There are people that find computers confusing.....
    Understood, but again I must stress there is nothing confusing about : NOT OPENING EMAIL ATTACHMENTS.
    Like vitualis stated : Don't use HTML in your e-mail client and don't use Outlook Express - and if you must use OE express then disable the preview pane.

    Another program I have found useful : Process Viewer - For those of you without XP this will show ALL tasks running - great for detecting : spyware, trojans.
    http://www.teamcti.com/pview/

    ][
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  20. Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid.

    You can't really blame Joe Beerdrinker. He's on dialup trying to download some teen porn before his wife gets home. Do you think he wants to download and install a 10 MB patch/SP/fix? (took my mother 3 days to update her XP machine after I told here what the "globby" thing was. Now she does it all the time)

    Who you can blame is the major corp and the IT departments. How fast would this thing have spread using only dialup? "I'm overworked, we're understaffed, we can't reboot the server during business hours, I didn't the memo on that,..." BMW got smacked. A local game store got hit. The "IT department" was on his honeymoon. They basically wiped, reloaded, repatched, and prayed over 12 computers and the server. The store manager wanted "to be on the safe side".

    To prove the wizard's rule:
    Q-"I've formated and re-installed XP 4 times and I still have the Blaster worm. Did my Window's CD get infected?"

    A- anybody care to try?
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  21. contrarian rallynavvie's Avatar
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    "A fool and his money are soon parted"

    I make a lot of money off ignorant computer users. Hell I charged someone $60 to plug in the power cable to the back of their PC since, and I quote "I'm not sure which of all these plugs this one goes into." I played with those little shaped blocks that fit into similarily shaped holes back when I was a kid, didn't anyone else? Funny stuff.

    BTW you can use Kazaa without worrying about spyware and the like, just look for the open source version of it. I think it's called K++ or something. I've used it since it came out and never had security issues with it (it even has some basic IP blocking to keep out certain "high profile" users).

    This kinda reminds me of the car industry. We have the technology to make a car that will almost never require maintenance but if we did that we'd lose all those jobs for mechanics and parts resellers.
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  22. No, I don't have a site with a list of programs that a spyware free... However, I'm pretty conservative when it comes to installing new programs. I'm generally pretty sure that they are spyware free first.

    For example, installed AdAware a little while ago just to see if I happened to have anything active (i.e., something apart from the occasional registry string)... and I didn't...

    You just have to be careful and mindful of what you install...

    Regards.
    Michael Tam
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    Michael,

    That's not quite good enough.

    I have said I do not DL from KaZaa, the old Napster, the new Napster, don't go to warez sites, only DL from Tucows, Downloads.com, distributor's homepages, etc.

    Still, when I ran the AdAware, Spybot, Trojan Hunter, wound up with 67 applets, if you want to call them that, that were reporting on what I was doing, where I have been, etc.

    I have gone to my Norton Firewall and disallowed, blocked, many Internet Enabled apps, everything from RealPlayer, which I don't use, why the hell do I want it to look for an update, to MP9 wanting to go out looking for new media licenses.

    If I install my camera software, I am almost certain that, if I run AdAware, again, I will find another dataminer, or tracker.

    It is rampant. Almost anything you install has some kind of reporting applet in it, cookie, whatever.

    Before I ran AdAware and the others, I had hundreds of cookies, very few of which I could tell which did what. A couple I could identify, Doubleclick, like that, but they were the ones that told you outright they were going to place a cookie on your machine to keep your place when you came back, much as I assume DVDRHELP does, as when I come back after 8 hours off, it will only show me new posts since I was last there.

    You may be running under a false sense of security, thinking that you are safe, that none of the stuff you install has any type of Spyware included.

    And, to the guy above who says he updates and runs his virus program at least every couple weeks, he should reset it to weekly, preferably late Wednesday, for Norton, posted every Wednesday, update and run. It will run in the background, if he should be awake and on line.

    Anyone not running an up to date anti-virus program is whistling past the graveyard.

    I am still a step ahead of you guys, as I still have 98 on my main machine, so, if nothing else, I'm not sending any e-mails to Baldrick. I get my notifications on Eudora, my secondary e-mail, my primary, I only accept those that I wish to give the address to.

    Cheers,

    George

    Long post, huh?
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  24. Um... as I've said, I'm pretty conservative with what programs I run... I don't install programs every second day so I only do a spyware scan when I install something dubious (for example, something that actually needs net access).

    Anything that doesn't need net access won't get it as it will get blocked by the firewall.

    As for cookies, that's not really "spyware" in the true sense. Also, I use Mozilla to block "unsavoury" cookies which is more effective in any case.

    Regards.
    Michael Tam
    w: Morsels of Evidence
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    Michael,

    My firewall advises me when a new program tries to access the internet. The problem is, you would not think that the program would TRY to access. If you do not have a firewall, you do not know it is doing so. And, if you have Norton, in particular, you will see X number of internet capable programs that are marked as "automatic". You get no warning that these are reporting your activities, because they are "automatic".

    Almost all programs have the capability written into them, today, as information is valuable to those who want it.

    Eternal vigilance. Where have I heard that before?

    Must try the Greedy Dog, above, see what it can do.
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  26. I don't really get your point, but then I don't use Norton.

    I use ZoneAlarm and it asks me permission for all programs trying to access the net (no matter how obvious -- e.g., my web browser).

    As I said in my post, if you use the net, you MUST use a firewall (and preferably, a good one at that).

    However, specifically with spyware, it is probably not entirely necessary to have it in the background all the time (unlike virus scanner and firewall). After all, spyware is not going to spontaneously appear out of nothing. You need to install something for spyware to exist. And if you have a good firewall, the spyware will be ineffective if one does slip through.

    Regards.
    Michael Tam
    w: Morsels of Evidence
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  27. Chris S ChrisX's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by gmatov
    Michael,

    My firewall advises me when a new program tries to access the internet. The problem is, you would not think that the program would TRY to access. If you do not have a firewall, you do not know it is doing so. And, if you have Norton, in particular, you will see X number of internet capable programs that are marked as "automatic". You get no warning that these are reporting your activities, because they are "automatic".

    Almost all programs have the capability written into them, today, as information is valuable to those who want it.

    Eternal vigilance. Where have I heard that before?

    Must try the Greedy Dog, above, see what it can do.
    You have to find them, adware, spyware and any info send out to the vendor's server everytime you install a new program, any program which is capable of Internet access and stop them sending out the info from your computer. You have to stop them, all of them and this is a pain.

    RealDownload and Real Player is pretty bad and the worse regarding privacy and I have to untick several areas and also disable the automatic updates or upgrades not needed.

    Everytime you update or upgrade an application, you have to check the settings again to make sure they are set on what you done before otherwise they are reset as default.

    I've seen cases of Real Networks resetting my preferences without my permission and the signals go out to the Internet. The Real Player is the worse again in this regard as so annoying to fix the settings all over again. I can remember complaining to them once. I only use the Real Player for the Radio, this is it.

    A firewall is a great idea finding out what signals are coming out of the computer and to stop them and MS Works is the worse Microsoft Application regarding constant checking for updates when not needed all the time.

    I am not sure if the DivX Player from DivX.com got any Spyware and there is one which is adware and I've unticked the Auto check for updates everytime the player is loaded to play a video clip.

    Using the DivX Player nothing else seem to happen when a clip is played? I think the adware refers to the display splash screen at start and a line of ad is there. I downloaded this version 1st July and works well.
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    Michael,

    As in Chris's post after mine above, you don't really know if you have gotten spyware installed. A cookie dropped on your machine won't trigger AdAware, Norton, or even Zone Alarm in many cases.

    You have a tracking cookie installed, it records/reports your every move; you don't know it's there if you have cookies enabled, and if you don't have cookies enabled, many sites don't allow you on them.

    Many, many programs have internet capabilities. And, as I said, when I ran Norton Firewall, it showed dozens of programs that were set as "Automatic" for internet access. Microsoft is the least of my worries; when it pops up it is usually to inform me that there is a new "critical" update, so I soon go to get it.

    When it's Real networks, it's gone from my machine.

    Hell, Corel accesses the net, Pait Shop Pro, any number of programs are net capable, and a Zone Alarm, or a Norton, or an AdAware will not catch one that is installed as part of the package. It sets itself as Automatic, probably because it was installed as a "trusted" piece of software.

    This might fall into the Warez realm, but there was a time when I could go 150 days on a 30 day trial with no problem. Then I found that it no longer worked, and also found that it had net access; whether it went out to say I had used it longer than 30 days, or they polled my machine to find that I had gone over the trial period, I don't know. I either sent them data, or they probed my machine, and I got no warning, either way.

    Again, when I ran a Norton checkup, I found PSP set at "automatic".

    Are you SURE you are well protected?

    Just a thought.

    Sorry for such a long post, and hope it's not a hi-jack.

    Eternal vigilance, again.

    Cheers,

    George
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  29. Again, this is the behaviour of Norton.

    No program is automatically "trusted" for ZoneAlarm... EVERYTHING is asked (at least once).

    Regards.
    Michael Tam
    w: Morsels of Evidence
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  30. Sobig is set to fire off at 15:00 EDT.

    Interesting hunt going on right now for 20 computers. Details here
    http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20030822/tc_nm/...ernet_virus_dc
    Just what is this reality thing anyway?
    Quote Quote  



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