srspg3_04

KCNET NEWSLETTER
04/03/05
TECHNICAL PAGE

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF
INTERESTING SITES

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING:
Weekly Download: BHO Demon 2.0.19 Worldstart gets the thanks for this one. We played with this in the Advanced Users class this past Wednesday. I need a bit more time to warm up to this one - I'm working on it. See what you think. (Mike)
This week's download is a little gem that helps figure out if any of those BHO's you have on your browser are safe or are known to be malicious. Now you may be saying one of two things: (1) "Great these BHO's have been going on unchecked in my system for far to long", or (2) "Hey Ma, you ever hear of a BHO?" Well don't feel a shamed if you don't know what a BHO is. I myself had to read up on it, but now I know, and I'm here to pass on the knowledge.
A BHO is a "Browser Helper Object" and what that means on the street is a little program that attaches itself to your browser as an add on tool, usually or possibly without your knowledge at all. Once installed the range of what they do is on both sides of the spectrum—good and bad.
An example of just a few BHO's would be Google search bar or Bugnosis, which are both BHO's, which in this case are nice little tools. Both of these BHO's help the browser search and possibly perform other functions.
On the other side of this spectrum are BHO's like MyWeb Search or others, which are not so helpful and are actually a pain to get out of your system and may have installed themselves without your knowledge.
With the range of possible functions one of these BHO's can perform it's hard to know for sure if they are helping you or "Selling you out". What I mean by this is if you happen to pick up a cool web tool from some site or from a link in a message board and you're not familiar with the company or product you may be setting yourself up. This web tool that would have you believe that it is helping you out is in actuality giving away your information, or carrying out some other secret mission for others.
This is where the BHO Demon comes in handy. Lord knows I download all kinds of add-ons for my browser; do I always know if they are pests or legitimate Internet tools? Not always. It's nice to have something to keep the tools inline, kind of like internal affairs.
If you're one of the thousands that look forward to our spectacular weekly downloads then you may notice a couple of BHO's when you run BHO Demon. Tiny Spell, Spoofstick, and Bugnosis, are all old downloads that we ran that come up as BHO's, but none of them are diagnosed as a threat. It is easy to see if the program finds the BHO dangerous by the columns preceding the entry, if the BHO is not seen as a threat then you will see. You may see something next to the entries that says "investigating" which means it doesn't have enough information on it yet.

From the list you can then disable suspect BHO's or ones under investigation that you are not sure of.
Download Here:
http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/programs/bhodemon20setup_2022.exe ********************************************************************************************************************** System Restore Fights Malware-Removers? This one from Fred Langa in a recent Langalist.
Fred, I am a Langalist Plus subscriber and just have a couple of short questions. (1) I read on Norton's Symantec site to turn off system restore and re -scan the computer if a threat etc was found to be able to check the restored files properly and remove any threats. Should I do this also with my Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, and Microsoft AntiSpyware occasionally to remove any threats from system restore also?
(2) Since I recently installed SP2 my folder windows open smaller than when I last opened the same folder window. It is a manageable annoyance which means that I often have to open it up larger to use it. Any clues would be welcome? I couldn't even start up a computer 2 years ago! Regards, Rodney Millroy System Restore:

Yes, System Restore (and similar tools, like Go Back) can actually work against you by restoring an infected version of a system file after you've cleaned the "live" file. Actually, any form of backup can do this, but the problem is more acute with SR and Go Back because they operate more or less automatically: It's easy to forget they're there, and hard to know exactly what they've backed up, and when. So, the safest thing is to turn off SR (or Go Back) at least temporarily when you're scanning or trying to clean something off your PC. In fact, if you have good normal backups, it's not a bad idea to turn off SR or Go Back before scans, and to fully delete the old "Restore Points." That way, when the scan is done, a new restore Point will be created when you restart SR or Go Back, and that Restore Point will be free from malware.

More info: "How antivirus software and System Restore work together"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;831829 and "Maximizing System Restore In WinME and WinXP"
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020711S0009 Folder Size: I doubt this is an SP2 thing. Generally, Windows remembers the size and position of your last-used windows, and opens future instances of the same kind of windows in the same way. When the system seems to "forget" how windows were last opened, it sometimes means that a window opened and closed automatically in the background or during startup; that's the "last opened" state that Windows remembers, even though you didn't manually do anything--- you might not even know that such a window was being manipulated by software. You'll have to check your startup process to see if something like that's going on. (See our previous coverage on "Startup Editors" e.g. http://langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-08-20.htm#5 You also can manually control many, many aspects of how windows open: See "Ten Ways To Make Windows XP Run Better" http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011204S0009.

********************************************************************************************************************** I've been asked to feature some Beginner/Inatermediate type techie stuff. Here are two good ones from Worldstart.
Number 1: This may sound like a stupid question, but how do I make a folder?
I had a teacher who always said, "There are no stupid questions," and this one certainly isn't. That's what Computers 101 is for!
Let's say you would like to have some sub-folders (a sub-folder is a folder within a folder) in your "My Documents" folder. You could set one up for each member of your family so everyone's stuff stays separate, or for specific jobs.
Here's how:
Right-click the Start button, select Explore from the little menu that pops up. Windows Explorer will open. You'll see the "My Documents" folder on the list to the left. Double-click it. From the RIGHT hand pane, right-click your mouse and select, "New" and "Folder".
A new folder will pop up. Type in a name for it and you're all set.
If you happen to click your mouse before the folder is named, you can right-click it and select "Rename" from the little menu that pops up.
You can also right click while inside any folder (or even on the desktop) and select "New" and "Folder" to create one.
Of course, Windows XP had to be different. Any folder you open has a "Make new folder" link that you just click and the new folder appears, ready to be named.

You also will not find the Explore link in the XP Start Menu. All you do is right click any folder and choose "Explore".

Number 2: What's on your desktop?
When I got my new computer it didn't have a "My Computer" icon on the desktop. Maybe the manufacturer didn't want the average person messing around in there, but how else could I access the CD drives and such? Well, fortunately it was an easy fix.
Not only did I find "My Computer" there, but there were other things that could be turned on and off. Let's take a look at this area together...
Right-click the desktop and choose "Properties". Click the "Desktop" tab then the "Customize Desktop" button.
Under the "General" tab you'll find check boxes for different desktop items: My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, and Internet Explorer.

Check the ones you want and uncheck what you don't. Click OK.
There you have it—your desktop, your way. ********************************************************************************************************************** Another Langalist--This one ought to bend some minds and cause some folks to find another Instant Messanger host.
AOL Owns Rights To Your Words According to a posting on SlashDot http://slashdot.org/ , AOL has invoked the "all your messages are belong to us"
property grab that Apple Computer and Microsoft have both tried in the past (and failed).

Acaben writes "AOL has posted new terms of service http://www.aim.com/tos/tos.adp for AIM, that include the right for AOL to use anything and everything you send through AIM in any way they see fit http://www.benstanfield.com/thrash/2005/03/ aol_eavesdrops_.html , without informing you. A sample passage: '...by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy.'"

If AOL had problems losing members before, this should enhance it significantly. ---Ken Kashmarek An AOL public relations spokesman has since said that this policy only applies to posts in public areas; and that AOL won't monitor private discussions. But the official TOS says nothing at all about it being limited only to public posts; or that private conversations are excluded from AOL's "irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium." I guess your reaction to this will depend on whether you believe the Terms of Service, or an AOL PR flack....

********************************************************************************************************************** During the mid class break of the Advanced Users session a week ago I noticed a couple of our attendees gathered about KCnet tech Steve Stewart's computer watching Steve demo XP's "Pretend I'm An Older Windows OS Version." It dawned on me that we hadn't visited that feature of Windows XP in awhile. Here is what Steve was demoing. This explanation from Worldstart is called Windows XP Compatibility.

So, you've upgraded to Windows XP or 2000 and now some of your old programs don't work. I hate that! It's been our experience that most older programs designed for Windows 95/98/ME will run on XP, regardless of what previous version of Windows they were originally designed for. The only ones that refuse to run are the ones you really, really need :-)
If you can't get a program to run on XP/2000, try this:
1. Right click its icon under the Programs menu, then select Properties from the resulting menu,
2. Now, click the Compatibility tab. You can choose what version of Windows you want XP to pretend to be.

For example, let's say you have a program that installs but refuses to run. If you set its compatibility for Win 98, you may find that it's now perfectly happy doing it's thing on XP (of course, it's blissfully ignorant of the fact it's been tricked).
This usually works about 50% of the time, so don't bet the preverbal farm on it.
Windows XP also has a "Program Compatibility Wizard" that will search for the best version of Windows to run a program under. To get there, click Start, Help and Support, then "Find compatible hardware and software for Windows XP", and finally, under "See Also" in the navigation pane, click Program Compatibility Wizard. You will be given instructions on what to do.
Another suggestion is to update your program. How often do you go to the website of a software manufacturer and look for program updates? What about updated drivers for your sound card? Most of the time you can download update patches for free!
With some luck, you will be playing your favorite old games or using that older software in no time.

VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF:

THE TALLY:
Thursday, March 18 -- Thursday, March 24
According to Sophos, a leader in Anti Virus Software development, 24 new/improved viruses, which required Anti Virus upgrades were released into cyberspace via email.
&
KCnet's anti virus program caught and "defanged" 7,336 email viruses in addition to
refusing 186,956 spam messages. There were 165,998 non spam and
non virus messages delivered to KCnet subscribers.

Have you updated your anti virus program lately?
If not, may I recommend that you do it now?

**********************************************************************************************************************

Mytob e-mail worm proliferating quickly By Matt Hines, CNET News, ZDNet News: March 29, 2005
With eight new variants surfacing in the last week alone, and over a dozen reported since the beginning of March, the Mytob mass-mailing worm appears to be evolving rapidly.

On Monday, security software maker Symantec reported two new versions of the virus, labeled as W32.Mytob.R and W32.Mytob.S. Both worms achieved a low or moderate threat rating from Symantec, as have earlier variants of Mytob, but the company is still recommending that people update their security software immediately to protect against the emerging threat.

Like other iterations of Mytob, the two latest versions are distributed via mass e-mail campaigns, feature so-called backdoor capabilities, and attack computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system. The worm uses its own SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) engine to forward itself to e-mail addresses that it gathers from infected computers. The threat also spreads by exploiting the Local Security Authority Service Remote Buffer Overflow in Windows, an opening that Microsoft has already addressed in its periodic security updates.

The latest versions of Mytob also attempt to block infected computers from accessing the security update Web sites of companies such as Symantec, McAfee and Microsoft, by adding text to a compromised PC's Hosts file.

Symantec has tracked numerous variations of the two new Mytob worms, with each threat being distributed from a number of different sender names and featuring a range of e-mail subject lines and message texts. Both Mytob.R and Mytob.S arrive in e-mails with subject lines that include the phrases "good day" and "mail transaction failed."

Most of the 13 iterations of the virus discovered since the beginning of this year are nearly identical, but one version, W32.Mytob.Q, which was reported by Symantec on Sunday, harbors a second low threat virus, W32.Pinfi.

********************************************************************************************************************** 'Brad Pitt' virus targets Microsoft By Dan Ilett, ZDNet Published on ZDNet News: March 31, 2005
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears are the subjects of a virus scam that is attempting to recruit computers for a denial-of-service attack on Microsoft.

Hackers have released a self-spreading worm, called Ahker-F, that promises salacious movie clips of the celebrities. The e-mails contain text such as: "Watch Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt cought (sic) on TAPE! SEXY CLIP! WATCH IT!"

Attached to the e-mail is a .Zip file that contains the worm. If opened, the worm spreads to the user's e-mail contacts, disables security settings on the PC, and launches a denial-of-service attack against Microsoft's security update Web site.

"People's appetite for salacious gossip is insatiable, and some may be tempted to run what appear to be pornographic movie files distributed across the Internet," Sophos, a security software company, said in a statement. "However, virus writers have a long history of disguising their malicious code as this kind of content. Everyone should be very careful about what they choose to run on their computer."

The worm also spreads via file-sharing networks, using file names such as PORNO.exe, XXX.exe and Naked Britney.exe.

**********************************************************************************************************************

IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOU HAVE A VIRUS OR IF YOU HAVE NOT SUCCESSFULLY SCANNED YOUR DRIVES FOR VIRUSES LATELY... THESE NEXT SITES ARE FOR YOU.
Free Virus scans.
Computer Associates, a reputable and reliable anti virus developer introduced a new free program which allows anyone to do a virus scan without downloading any software or registering for an anti virus program. You must use Internet Explorer for access to Computer Associates and to perform the scan. This is a good one and very simple to operate The address is http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx

Trend Micro, more commonly referred to as Housecall, offers free virus scans and in most cases can fix damage down by a virus or worm that your computer may have contacted. The program works well. The first time one uses the free program it is necessary to download a small program. Trend Micro walks you through the process. Then the virus scans are quite simple for each return. Go to http://housecall.antivirus.com/ then choose the link "Scan without registering". Follow the directions.

You should disable any anti virus program that you have running. If you do not have a virus program I recommend that you use one of the programs offered above first and then download and install one of the free programs listed below or install any anti virus program you have purchased.

Free Anti Virus programs for download. Quite a few KCnet members use these programs and like them.
Be careful if you download a virus program and you already have one installed on your computer. You need to at least disable the program already installed.

AVG Free
AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements).
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Avast
Avast has been "anti virusing" for quite awhile. The following info comes from their download page: Avast! Home is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use. You can find more info here.
http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html
Note: This product is free for home non-commercial use after registration!
HINTS: Click on the English Version Link and download the installation file. Then click on the installation file and follow the directions. You will need to return to the download page and click on the link to get the registration key. It will be sent to you in an email after you provide some registration information. This will give you 14 months of coverage including any updates which can be set to auto download. You can reregister for additional free coverage at the end of the 14 months.
You will want to browse around and choose from the many options available for operation. This process will take some time and digging.

Another good free program is:
http://www.free-av.com/
This one installs a bit easier than Avast.

**********************************************************************************************************************

Top 5 Viruses for March 18 to March 24 from Trend Micro.

   1. WORM_NETSKY.P
   2. HTML_NETSKY.P
   3. JAVA_BYTEVER.A
   4. TROJ_DLOADER.DH
   5. TROJ_SMALL.SN

True Viruses and Warning Letters of Impending Doom.
Believe it or not, the amount of harm done by sending false computer virus alarms and letters of impending doom to your thousand closest friends can be just as damaging as the alleged virus (if it even exists!); if you remember the story of the boy who cried wolf, you understand why.
If you think you've got the scoop on the latest new devastating virus or latest doom warning, check it out at the Web sites below before taking it on yourself to alert the world. If the virus is as terrible as you think it is, odds are the virus fighters already know about it and -- good news here! -- your anti virus software provider probably knows about it too and already has an update for it.
Sophos supplies this current information about actual hoaxes. Look at them. Read about them. If you are sent one of them, delete it.

Here are a few sites of many that can help you determine if an email is a hoax or real.

http://www.quatloos.com/
http://www.snopes.com/
http://vil.nai.com/VIL/hoaxes.asp
http://kumite.com/myths/
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
http://www.scambusters.org/VirusHoaxes.html
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/
http://www.truthorfiction.com/

INTERESTING SITES:
World War II in Color. Thanks to Amanda for this one.
Looking back over a lot of the sites we've run on WWII, you find a lot of black and white photos. Well now thanks to this site you can experience color photos. To get started, click on "Image Gallery" and you'll see a plethora of options before you.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of black and white photography and I feel that those kinds of pictures can tell a compelling story. And they do have an excellent black and white Gallery called the "Best of Black and White WWII Photos". My favorite there is the American GI holds a Puppy. This gallery has 141 images, it is worth your time, so don't skip over it in your delight to view the color photos.
As to the rest of the galleries you have the options of German Military, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marines, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, British Military, Soviet Union Military, Japanese Military, Other Units, Homefront, Contemporary Photographs, and WWII Movies in Color.
Now being a woman, I must confess that I adored the photographs from the Homefront, which showed women in the workforce, doing what would have been considered in their era men's jobs. March is Women's History Month and this section was a delight from that aspect.
The Military photos are all so amazing I'm sure that you will find them as fascinating as I did. I'll be honest and admit that I ended up looking through all of them. It gives you a very realistic view of the gritty details of the war that you could only imagine. Giving an in-depth look at all sides of the war.
The Contemporary Photographs section was pretty amazing in itself, even though it's only 11 images, they are all pretty neat. My favorite is the last photo of the Supermarine Spitfire Mk with counter rotating props.
WWII Movies in Color: this section is very interesting and there are clips that you can watch. Check out the 10 images here, and you are in for a treat.
What else will you find on this site? Well, there is the section on the History of Color Photography. This section explains why color pictures were so hard to find from this time period even though color photography was invented 100 years before the war. A very interesting read indeed!
"About the Images" explains where the images came from and how you can submit images if you have some you'd like to share with them from WWII.
This site is a great way to see history like you have never seen it before!
http://www.ww2incolor.com/

This one from Fred Langa at Langalist.
Outstanding Reference Sites Fred, I'm a first-year Plus subscriber, and have no intention of quitting any time soon. This is one addiction I'm proud of!
I was just pointed to http://www.answersthatwork.com/ from PC Magazine's Top 101 Websites for Fall 2004 http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1738,7488,00.asp which I received, in turn, as RefDesk's Site of the Day for Sunday, March 6 http://refdesk.com/ .
Each of these sites is a gem: AnswersThatWork is a warehouse of, well, answers - exclusively IT - that, while not as wide-
ranging as your column, is still very useful, and works on an interesting concept: if and when you find the answer you're looking for, you may very well need it again in the future, so you download the answer article and keep it on your PC or company network for easy access.
The PC Magazine site provides reviews of each of the sites listed, a link (duh!), and in many cases discussion by site visitors. They cover everything from online businesses to major oddities.
Finally, while RefDesk's home page is hideously busy, they do provide a nice service in the Site of the Day and Thought of the Day. Thanks for the fantastic column and advice! Keep it up, Yiftach Levy

The Planetary Society Another one from Amanda
This site's claim is that they are the "largest nonprofit, non governmental space advocacy group on Earth." After you see how much information they have available to you on the planets and outer space, you'll probably agree with them.
Along the top of the page you will see the menu bar with Society Information, Publications, Planetary News, Learning Center, and Links.
The Society Information section will tell you all about the Planetary Society and how it got started and how you can join.
Publications tells you all about their magazine, The Planetary Report. "This bimonthly magazine reaches members of The Planetary Society all over the world, with news about planetary missions, space faring nations, intrepid explorers, planetary science controversies and the latest findings in humankind's exploration of the solar system."
The Learning Center — This is a great section, where you can learn all about the Universe that we live in. From the Planets, Lunar Missions, Spaceships, Exploring Mars, Art, and Galileo Journals. You'll find something new and interesting to learn about. I have to tell you that I spent quite some time in this section and was surprised by how much new information I learned on topics I thought I knew fairly well.
Now back on the main page — you'll notice there are sections on it as well. Headline's is where you can read recent news on outer space and things like the 75th anniversary of Pluto. The rest of the site you can explore for yourself, I don't want to take the discovery away from you. But I have to mention that if you scroll down the page you'll find a section called Special Sections. This is my favorite section of the entire site.
Special Sections — in this area you will find out about Solar Sails, Mars, The Exploration for Intelligent Life, Near Earth Objects, Extra Solar Planets, and so much more. The neatest part of this site, if you want my opinion.
Well I hope you enjoyed this stellar journey as much as I did!
http://www.planetary.org/

WATCH YOUR COMPUTER PAINT!
This is a fascinating sit-back-eyes-open amusement on the web. Boost the speed up to the fastest and watch that brush go to town!
Better yet paint your own masterpiece.
http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?ibxfcqqg4uo

For the first time in United States history, you are invited to experience Weightless Flight.
We apply the highest standards of safety, FAA approved activity offers everyone the chance to enjoy the fun and exhilarating dream of weightlessness, which is how astronauts have been trained
by NASA for 40 years and how Tom Hanks floated in Apollo 13. During a Weightless Flight you can experience what its like to walk on Mars and the Moon and be weightless like you are in Earth orbit.
The ZERO-G Experience is a program in which you will be inspired by hearing firsthand what space is like and about the uses of Weightless Flight direct from a veteran astronaut. You will also learn how to maximize your time in zero gravity and officially become Weightless Certified.
What is included in the ZERO-G Experience?
    * Inspirational training led by a veteran astronaut
    * Weightless Flight with 15 parabolas aboard
      G-FORCE ONE™
          o Martian-G Parabolas (1/3 gravity)
          o Lunar-G parabolas (1/6 gravity)
          o Zero gravity parabolas
    * ZERO-G merchandise
    * Re-Gravitation Party with awards presentation
http://www.nogravity.com/experience.htm
Book a Seat
Apr.09 2005 Fort Lauderdale, FL $3750.00 + Tax
Jul. 16 2005 Fort Lauderdale, FL $3750.00 + Tax
Sep.17 2005 Fort Lauderdale, FL $3750.00 + Tax
Nov.19 2005 Fort Lauderdale, FL $3750.00 + Tax
http://www.nogravity.com/Book/Bookaseat.aspx

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