When it comes to antivirus, its my opinion that it should be better used for prevention of an infection rather than to cure an infected system.
Ideally, you should install the antivirus software as soon as you install the operating system and before most other programs. More importantly, you should install the antivirus before you connect your system to other systems via a LAN or the Internet - before Viruses, worms and Trojans get a chance to infect your system.
Someone who administers 200 computers told me that AVG Antivirus is useless and they were being let down. On discussion with him, I found out that they tried to install antivirus software after a computer was suspected to be infected. Most systems were not updated with security and critical updates and had vulnerabilities dating back to 2002! And none had firewalls turned on. Every single system was used routinely with administrative accounts.
No wonder he feels that antivirus solutions inadequate. I advised him to follow a minimum security procedure: Windows Updates, Early Antivirus installation, giving non-admin accounts for day to day usage, firewall configuration etc. Security is a habit, it seems. Lets see if things improve.
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Thursday, 23 August 2007
del.icio.us
Have you visited del.icio.us? Its a social bookmarking website.
A social bookmarking website lets you save your bookmarks online. You can access them easily from anywhere on the Internet- from home, work, a library, or on a friend's computer.
It lets you share your bookmarks with others on the Internet - with your friends, co-workers, fans etc. It also lets you to save private, non-shared bookmarks, if you want.
It also lets you discover sites that others have found good. You can easily see which websites others have bookmarked for a topic. For example, if you are looking for sites regarding CNC programming, simply search for the tag 'CNC' in bookmarks of people world-over. You will be getting sites that others have found good for information on CNC.
Rather than organise your bookmarks in folders, del.icio.us uses a concept of tags that you will get used to quickly and will find very beneficial. "Tags are one-word descriptors that you can assign to your bookmarks on del.icio.us. They're a little bit like keywords..." For more information on tags, visit their help page on tags.
For more information on how saving bookmarks to del.icio.us works, you can visit their help page on saving bookmarks.
There are numerous social bookmarking sites to choose from.
BTW, did you notice that del.icio.us is simply the word delicious with two dots in between?
A social bookmarking website lets you save your bookmarks online. You can access them easily from anywhere on the Internet- from home, work, a library, or on a friend's computer.
It lets you share your bookmarks with others on the Internet - with your friends, co-workers, fans etc. It also lets you to save private, non-shared bookmarks, if you want.
It also lets you discover sites that others have found good. You can easily see which websites others have bookmarked for a topic. For example, if you are looking for sites regarding CNC programming, simply search for the tag 'CNC' in bookmarks of people world-over. You will be getting sites that others have found good for information on CNC.
Rather than organise your bookmarks in folders, del.icio.us uses a concept of tags that you will get used to quickly and will find very beneficial. "Tags are one-word descriptors that you can assign to your bookmarks on del.icio.us. They're a little bit like keywords..." For more information on tags, visit their help page on tags.
For more information on how saving bookmarks to del.icio.us works, you can visit their help page on saving bookmarks.
There are numerous social bookmarking sites to choose from.
BTW, did you notice that del.icio.us is simply the word delicious with two dots in between?
Website Design Tools
Designing a website? Here is a list of must-know online tools for optimising your site: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/10/10-designers-checkpoints-to-be-aware-of/
Thursday, 2 August 2007
HijackThis
HijackThis is a must have tool for advanced users. TrendMicro's website says:
"HijackThis™ is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan.
IMPORTANT: HijackThis does not determine what is good or bad. Do not make any changes to your computer settings unless you are an expert computer user. ... Not an expert? Just save the HijackThis report and let a friend with more troubleshooting experience take a look."
So HijackThis lists all installed browser add-ons, buttons, startup items, search engine settings etc. If you find something that is causing problems, you can easily remove them using the tool itself.
Here is what a typical log will look like:
Logfile of HijackThis v1.98.0
....
Running processes:
E:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
E:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
E:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
E:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
E:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\FRONTPG.EXE
E:\Documents and Settings\Sootah\Desktop\HijackThis1980.exe
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http://www.google.com/ie
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://www.google.com
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.theregister.co.uk/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&pver=6&ar=msnhome
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Helper - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - e:\program files\google\googletoolbar2.dll
O18 - Protocol: ms-help - {314111C7-A502-11D2-BBCA-00C04F8EC294} - E:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help\hxds.dll
You must be an advanced user to realise which is a virus or spyware or crapware and which is not. You may end up with a crashed system if you don't know what you are doing. Once you are very certain that a program is unwanted, go ahead and remove them with HijackThis and get rid of it.
If you do not understand fully what to do, but are having a problem with your PC which you suspect is due to a virus/spyware, you can visit so many forums that help you see what is wrong.
Download HijackThis from Merijn, Download.com.
For detailed information on how to analyse the HijackThis Logs, visit about.com's article.
"HijackThis™ is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan.
IMPORTANT: HijackThis does not determine what is good or bad. Do not make any changes to your computer settings unless you are an expert computer user. ... Not an expert? Just save the HijackThis report and let a friend with more troubleshooting experience take a look."
So HijackThis lists all installed browser add-ons, buttons, startup items, search engine settings etc. If you find something that is causing problems, you can easily remove them using the tool itself.
Here is what a typical log will look like:
Logfile of HijackThis v1.98.0
....
Running processes:
E:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
E:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
E:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
E:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
E:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\FRONTPG.EXE
E:\Documents and Settings\Sootah\Desktop\HijackThis1980.exe
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http://www.google.com/ie
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://www.google.com
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.theregister.co.uk/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&pver=6&ar=msnhome
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Helper - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - e:\program files\google\googletoolbar2.dll
O18 - Protocol: ms-help - {314111C7-A502-11D2-BBCA-00C04F8EC294} - E:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help\hxds.dll
You must be an advanced user to realise which is a virus or spyware or crapware and which is not. You may end up with a crashed system if you don't know what you are doing. Once you are very certain that a program is unwanted, go ahead and remove them with HijackThis and get rid of it.
If you do not understand fully what to do, but are having a problem with your PC which you suspect is due to a virus/spyware, you can visit so many forums that help you see what is wrong.
Download HijackThis from Merijn, Download.com.
For detailed information on how to analyse the HijackThis Logs, visit about.com's article.
Hardware, Software, Malware
What is Malware? Here is what Wikipedia says:
"Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. It is a mix of the words "malicious" and "software". The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code."
The variety of hostlile, intrusive or annoying software includes: worms, viruses, trojan horses, spyware, bad adware etc.
How can you prevent your computer from being damaged by malware?
"Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. It is a mix of the words "malicious" and "software". The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code."
The variety of hostlile, intrusive or annoying software includes: worms, viruses, trojan horses, spyware, bad adware etc.
How can you prevent your computer from being damaged by malware?
- You MUST have an Anti-Virus tool
- The Anti-Virus must cover your E-mail and Chat too
- Have a firewall turned on
- Use McAfee SiteAdvisor to keep you out of bad sites on the net
- Use a non-administrator account for email and browsing.
- Do Not Download from unpopular/unfamiliar sites. If you are looking for freeware or shareware versions of popular programs, stick to tucows.com, downloads.zdnet.com and download.com.
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Hardware, Software, Crapware
What's Crapware? Software that you don't need but is installed on your PC and taking up valuable resources.Get rid of them with the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel.
And watch http://www.cnettv.com/9710-1_53-28721.html for a nice video.
And watch http://www.cnettv.com/9710-1_53-28721.html for a nice video.
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
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