Posted at bleepingcomputer.com forum

My boss gave me his old XP after his company closed. There are two users on it, his name, and my name.

Is there any danger if I delete his user name, and just use mine. I am not certain if there is some administrator password.
I know that I have full admin rights. I have removed most of the old data and archived it on a USB Mybook and on a USB Scancor 64 gig. I feel it would free up some resources if I delete his old profile. On the other hand, I would regret it if I deleted his profile and the machine stopped working properly, since I do not have the original install disks for Windows XP, and there is no real problem in leaving his user profile there and just never using it.

Also, I dont really have the expertise to reinstall Windows. And his machine also has some software that we find useful, like Quick Books, which would be difficult for me to reinstall. I suppose I am really answering my own question, namely, it is better to leave well enough alone, and, if it aint broke, dont fix it.

We did have a second XP at work that had all sorts of problems with the 4 of the user accounts. We had to give that machine to someone who purchased parts of the old company. But I did not dare delete those other user accounts, I just changed the name to DO NOT USE, and put a password on them, to discourage someone from accidentally getting into them.

I also had one strange experience with that particular machine. I purchased a CHEAP USB extender, and installing it seemed to mess up the machine. I think if I had purchased a Belkin, or some quality brand, then the problem would not have happend. But ever since that experience, I am hesitant to try a USB port extender, fearing that it will mess up a machine.

One machine we have at home, a Dell XP professional, is five or more years old. I was always afraid to mess around with it, fearing it would stop working. When I got 2 extra machines, I felt like I should take courage and try to really fix up the first machine, and take some risks. I had always used AVG by Grisoft free antivirus, for about 8 years, on an old Compaq which became useless, and then on this XP. It did seem to give some false positives. ANd what was HILARIOUS, when I installed malwarebytes, it flagged it as MALWARE! Ha ha! I had an old copy of free Sygate firewall, which was great in its day, but had stopped working. And I had a Norton firewall which we never updated because it would have cost money.

So, I decided on Avira Antivir FREE, and their forum was VERY helpful in giving me the courage to take some risks and clean up that machine. I uninstalled AVG, Sygate and Norton. Then they pointed me to two different uninstall utilities provided by Norton and McAfee to remove ALL traces of those programs left behind by normal uninstall methods, since those traces might interfere with Avira. So many people praised malwarebytes.org that I started using it all the time, and it was NOT malware as Avg claimed. The Avira forum directed me to Online Armour free firewall which works great.

Many at the Avira forum also swear by Ccleaner which has a registry cleaner. You can analyze the registry, make a copy of it which I have successfully used to RESTORE, and then, do things in tiny steps. You dont want to tell it to repair everything at once. If you have to restore then just boot into save mode, right click on the registry backup and it offers you the option to MERGE those entries back into the registry.

I must say that the older a machine gets, and the more you install and uninstall (plus the occasional virus or trojan), the flakier the operating system gets, until one reaches the point where the only option is to do a fresh install of the original operating system, or make it a pure Ubuntu machine.

I have always felt more comfortable with a desktop that comes with a RESTORE DISK, than with some laptop (like the old Dell laptops of 8 years ago, that had NO restore disk, and required a skilled technician to spend an hour or two reinstalling drivers). I am looking forward to the day when I can do everything with something like Ubuntu, and can always REINSTALL to the latest version and start over with a clean slate. AND the more that we have in the Internet “CLOUD” and not tied to some expensive proprietary software on our hard drive, difficult or impossible to reinstall, then the easier it is for us to resort to an OS reinstall as a solution to our problems. AND if we regularly back up everything, and plan ahead with libraries of what we installed and how we installed it, then recovery is perhaps only a weekend’s worth of work for “the weekend warrior”.

I am finding delicious.com book mark utility combined with a wordpress blog and clipperz.com for password storage to be a great tool to document everything I am doing, and also to share what I have learned with others who are trying to accomplish the same sorts of things.

This may be a little late in coming, for which I apologize, but if you are using AVG as your security software and iTunes has stopped working, then I have the fix.  Last Friday, AVG announced that it’s definition update is picking up some critical Dynamic Link Libraries, that are needed by iTunes, as a Trojan Horse.  As a result fixing this problem with AVG will cause iTunes to stop working.  AVG has apologized for this.  If iTunes has suddenly stopped working, and you are using AVG as your security choice, then updating the definitions to AVG should repair the problem.  Should iTunes continue to not work then AVG has posted a fix to the problem HERE.

This may seem like a great inconvenience, however with malware getting more and more sophisticated, this is a problem that will become more prevalent. Anti malware companies are behind the gun, as they are always trying to catch up. Kudos to AVG for admitting to the error, but as these hacks become more and more difficult to detect, expect the false positive results, from all the security suites,  to increase.

What are your thoughts???

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).
Highlights include:

•Automatic update functionality
•The AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run
•The AVG E-mail Scanner, which protects your e-mail
•The AVG On-Demand Scanner, which allows the user to perform scheduled and manual tests
•Free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product
•AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files

Download link via :
file hippo : http://www.filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus/download/9b6c64f33268995ed8266565e710f24e/

how to download?
please click link above or copy and paste in addres bar of your browser

Anti virus yang yang cukup terkenal dan ampuh salah satunya adalah AVG 8.0 baik yang free maupun berbayar, Produk Grisoft ini menyertakan perisai terhadap virus yang dinamakan Resident Shield, AVG juga mampu mendeteksi virus yang menunggangi email untuk menyebar. Perubahan yang terdapat di AVG 8.0 adalah yang pasti mulai dari fungsi-fungsi baru yang sangat berbeda di banding dengan AVG versi yang sebelumnya serta tampilan dan tata letak menu, dan tak kalah pentingnya adalah perbedaan cara mengupdatenya. Cara update AVG terbagi 3, yaitu :

1. Cara Otomatis,
2. Cara manual yang tidak gratis,
3. Cara Manual yang gratis.
   1. Cara Otomatis, cara ini adalah yang paling praktis. Kita tinggal tersambung dengan internet, buka AVG user interface atau aktifkan AVG saja dulu, klik tab Tools, pilih update dan tunggu proses sampai successfully.
      
   2. Cara manual yang tidak gratis, cara ini dilakukan bila cara otomatis gagal. Cara ini tetap harus terkoneksi dengan internet, file yang harus didownload cukup besar sekitar 31,8 MB dengan cara mengarahkan ke alamat tempat update manual disini, dan setelah nyambung pilih The Authors Site. Setelah file didownload, buka AVG user interface atau aktifkan AVG saja dulu, klik tab Tools, pilih update from directory, pilih directory tempat menyimpan update yang sudah didownload, klik OK dan tunggu proses sampai successfully.
   3. Cara Manual yang gratis, AVG yang dimaksud adalah AVG version 8.0.229 keatas ( bulan Pebruari 2009 Versinya sudah 8.0.237 ). Cara manual AVG dari tiap versi hampir selalu berbeda dan berubah-ubah tempat penyimpanan filenya. Cara ini mungkin yang paling dicari, cara ini memang hampir tidak mengeluarkan biaya, asal syaratnya kita mempunyai tempat untuk mengcopy file-filenya, bisa dari kantor, rumah teman, rumah saudara atau darimana saja asal mempunyai update AVG 8.0 versi terbaru. Bagaimana caranya ? …….. siap !

   Baiklah akan saya uraikan sebagai berikut :

• Buka komputer yang akan kita copy filenya, bisa dari kantor, rumah teman, rumah saudara atau darimana saja yang penting mempunyai update terbaru.
• Buka Windows Explorer, klik Drive (C:) System > Documents and Settings > All Users > Aplication Data > avg8 > Cfg, copy hanya satu file yaitu file updatecomps.cfg. File ini selalu berubah tanggal updatenya. Copy dan simpan ditempat aman.
• Masih di Windows Explorer, klik Drive (C:) System > windows > system32 > drivers > avg, terdapat 4 file dalam directory avg, copy semuanya atau kalau kita sudah pernah mengupdate cukup file dengan tanggal terbaru saja dan simpan di tempat aman.
• Proses pengcopyan telah selesai dan tutup komputernya.
• Bila kita mau mengupdate manual komputer di rumah atau dimana saja, cukup copykan dan replace file-file yang sudah dicopy tadi ke komputer target yang tidak terkoneksi internet. Lakukan seperti langkah b dan c diatas sesuai dengan urutan dan tempatnya.
• Cara ini disamping untuk AVG Free juga bisa dilakukan untuk AVG Anti Virus dan AVG Internet Security yang berbayar. Bila ada yang membutuhkan Licence Number AVG Anti Virus dan AVG Internet Security sampai tahun 2018 bisa menghubungi saya by email. Selamat mencoba, semoga berhasil.

For my first blog I wanted to touch on a subject I am always asked about – antivirus software.  Everyone comes to me mentioning that there computer does not run as well as it has in the past.  Although most have bloatware, spyware, malware, and viruses, the biggest thing sometimes slowing down their computer is their antivirus suite, usually Symantec or Mcafee are mentioned. Although great programs in their own right, I never liked the heavy load they put on the computer. I also don’t like paying for things I can get for free.  I have used AVG antivirus from grisoft.com for over 5 years now with no problems. I have been using their  free version.  Check out my website for a link to the free version at www.fvillage.com/repair.  The other free antivirus I recommend is Avast also accessible from my website.  In my next update I will explain how to configure AVG antivirus, you just can’t add it if you already have antivirus installed. While waiting visit my website and download the program using “save as” to your “My Documents” folder.

AVG Antivirus Free Edition è l’antivirus di casa Grisoft. AVG permette di proteggere abbastanza bene il nostro pc da eventuali minacce come virus e spyware. Lo possiamo scaricare gratuitamente a questo indirizzo. A questo indirizzo possiamo scaricare il manuale utente in formato PDF, peccato che sia in inglese. La versione gratuita non offre una protezione davvero completa, ma usando la versione completa (a pagamento) permette un’ottima protezione.

VENTURE CAPITAL. Kapitał inwestycyjny podwyższonego ryzyka coraz bardziej interesuje się Europą Środkowo- -Wschodnią. Nic dziwnego, skoro przy bezpieczeństwie inwestycji jak na rynkach dojrzałych, można tu osiągać stopy zwrotu typowe dla regionów rozwijających się.

Pobierz plik PDF z artykułem

It’s a fact that there are more people switching to Apple’s Macintosh computer platform. Even though Mac OS X is built on the solid BSD operating system, that doesn’t mean it’s impervious to malicious activities; just a year ago it was reported that there were fewer vulnerabilities on Windows-based computers (XP+Vista = 44) than there were on Macs (243). We can argue OS history, severity of the vulnerabilities, etc, but what’s going to hurt the Mac is the lackadaisical attitude its users have. Just this year alone, there have been 2-3 virii (I use that as a general term for trojans, worms, etc). There have also been at least 2 QuickTime issues, which Apple fixed, that could give someone access to their computer. So Windows might be on its last legs because of bloated code and crap UI design, but its users are more seasoned and ready in the security area than Mac users are. Try to spend some time researching anti-virus software for the Mac platform and you’ll come across smug replies from long-time users like “never had one, never will,” or crap anti-virus articles from ostensibly reputable Mac ‘zines.

Anyway, here are some current anti-virus programs for the Mac: Norton AntiVirus For Mac ($49.95), Intego VirusBarrier ($69.95), ClamXav (free), avast! antivirus Mac Edition ($39.95), iAntiVirus ($29.95), McAfee VirusScan for Mac ($36.55), and Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X ($?). After spending nearly 3 hours of research, I also found out that AVG and Kaspersky are looking into developing the platform, and Trend Micro has a partnership with Intego.

Since Trend Micro’s PC-Cillin has always been my preferred paid anti-virus, I’m interested in trying Intego’s VirusBarrier. After reading recent articles about Norton AntiVirus and how it’s not as resource intensive as it used to be, I’m really considering it again because I can put the $20 I save toward other things, like bills. Plus, I like Norton’s interface more than Intego’s.

I did use avast! on one of my Windows computers for a couple years and was impressed. Especially because it was one of the 2 64-bit anti-virus programs that was out at that time, the other was nod32. To me, that means that they were interested in progressing their product, unlike the others that took a couple years before they released a 64-bit version. However, after trying it out a few months back, my Mac experience wasn’t that great. I didn’t like having it taking up dock space because, to me, it makes more sense to have it up in the menu. Secondly, I didn’t like how it always opened up after logging in. Lastly, and because of the small avast! for Mac user base, I couldn’t find any resolution for my issues.

I’m hesitant to use ClamXav, iAntiVirus, Sophos, or McAfee for various reasons. ClamXav definitely has its following, but I would like more capability from my software. From what I’ve read, I get the “new kid on the block” vibe with iAntiVirus. I haven’t tried it, but I also haven’t found anything that compels me to use it either. Judging by the screenshots I’ve seen, I think this app is more geared towards the simple, clean “Mac-like” crowd. As for McAfee, I never liked them, and every computer I’ve come across with McAfee has always had virus issues. As for Sophos, if I can’t find expected information within the first 2 minutes of researching a product then I won’t waste any more of my time with it. However, since I was writing this, I decided to waste over an hour searching Sophos’ site and Google. From what I could decipher, there isn’t a site that allows electronic download, and all prices were over $100.

After all this research and writing, I’m happy that there is something online that has more information than I can find elsewhere. I’ve also come to the conclusion that I will be using Norton AntiVirus for Mac, while keeping an eye out for Kaspersky’s future product. : crosses fingers :

Technorati Tags: Norton, Intego, ClamXav, avast!, iAntiVirus, McAfee, Sophos, Grisoft, AVG, Kaspersky, VirusBarrier, VirusScan, Anti-virus, antivirus, Apple, Macintosh, Mac, OS X, Software, Computers, Malware, Virus

La Asociación de Locutorios y Cibers Cafés Españoles (ALYCE) en contra de la competencia desleal

Según los datos de la entidad ALYCE, en la actualidad, un 80% de los locutorios y cibercafés utilizan software ilegal, así como defraudan al Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda y a los Ayuntamientos (entidades locales). Por otro lado, el acuerdo firmado por esta asociación con la multinacional Microsoft ofrece la posibilidad de obtener gratuitamente licencias de alquiler de Microsoft Windows durante el primer año con el objetivo de erradicar este “grave problema”, como refleja el comunicado enviado la pasada semana a los medios de comunicación.

Una de las preguntas que te haces cuando llegas a un cibercafé es si puedes navegar por la red, utilizar las aplicaciones de Microsoft Office, OpenOffice y otra serie de programas para salir del paso, así como si tienes la oportunidad, en el caso de que sea necesario, de utilizar una impresora en red para poder imprimir un trabajo.

Bueno, en otros casos, hay personas que van a los ciber para jugar desde una computadora, o bien para relacionarse con sus familiares por medio del MSN Messenger.

Ahora bien, el uso de las licencias, que no es nuestro problema, siempre ha quedado en puntos suspensivos, es decir, que siempre podemos reflexionar acerca de si los programas que estás utilizando son legales o ilegales, al igual que si el acceso a la red es a través de una IP fija, la cual está contratada a unos de los ISP españoles, o, en su defecto, cada terminal, atendiendo a una Arquitectura de Red libre, se conecta de forma autónoma a la red.

Por otro lado, sin olvidarnos de la aplicación que controla los tiempos de acceso desde el servidor, el responsable del cibercafé también tiene el control sobre las cabinas, y éstas precisan de terminales independientes.

En números, la inversión es alta, ya que en estructura, equipos, impresora y aplicaciones, en el caso de que utilicen un Software de pago, podemos estar hablando de unos 13.000 a 17.000 euros.

Según la asociación de Locutorios y Cibers Cafés Españoles (ALYCE), el 80% no pagan las licencias de los programas de pago (Windows). La alternativa, en este caso, impulsada por esta entidad es ofrecer una kit gratuito durante un año para los locutorios que se quieran asociar.

En este contexto, a pesar de que las personas en su mayoría están acostumbradas a trabajar con Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer y otras aplicaciones de pago (Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw), si es pertinente notificar que hay otra alternativa de trabajar y comunicarse con otras plataformas, como los sistemas operativos basados en Linux, un programa de ofimática libre llamado OpenOffice, otro navegador para acceder a Internet (Safari para PC, Flock, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome), un antivirus gratuito (dependiendo de la versión ofertada por Avast, ClamWin o Grisoft), o los programas necesarios para el retoque fotográfico (Gimp), así como para almacenar información en un disco duro virtual.

Asimismo, os dejamos el comunicado de la entidad ALYCE y los enlaces a los programas mencionados:

La Asociación de Locutorios y Cibers Españoles (ALYCE) y Microsoft han puesto en marcha una Campaña que va a permitir regularizar las licencias de los PCs de los Cibercafés y Locutorios Españoles. Además, los Cibers y Locutorios que se adhieran a la Campaña recibirán, sin coste alguno, el “Kit de Acceso Compartido”, un conjunto de herramientas, información y muchos más recursos para potenciar su negocio.

Situación actual

En España existen actualmente unos 5.000 cibercafés y más de 20.000 locutorios, la mayoría de ellos están en una situación ilegal tanto administrativa, como en el uso del software que realquilan a sus clientes.

Solo una minoría (los legales), casi todos ellos afiliados a ALYCE, han decidido poner fin a esta situación de competencia desleal y para ello están pidiendo ayuda los fabricantes de Software, Comunidades autónomas, Ayuntamientos y Gobierno Central, para que pongan freno a este sector “salvaje” que mueve diariamente mas de 3.000.000 € diarios. Más del 70% del dinero que se mueve en este sector, es dinero “B”.

Los cibers tienen, de media, unos 10 Pc´s y un servidor y se estima que el 60% aproximadamente usan software ilegal. En cuanto los Locutorios, la cifra es aún más elevada, teniendo en cuenta que la media de Pc´s por locutorio es 3 y el 80% tiene instalado software ilegal. En total, cerca de 70.000 Pc´s ilegales en todo el país.

La cantidad defraudada al año, por el uso de este software ilegal podría superar los 120.000.000€. anualmente. La administracion además deja de recaudar mas de 19.200.000€. en concepto de IVA.

“A través de esta iniciativa, Microsoft quiere ayudar a que los dueños de los cibercafés y de los locutorios obtengan gratuitamente un “Contrato de Alquiler de Productos para Cibercafés de Microsoft” que les permita disponer durante 12 meses de los Derechos de Alquiler de Windows para su negocio, siempre que todos sus PCs dispongan de Windows Original”, ha declarado Txema Arnedo, Director de Desarrollo de Propiedad Intelectual.

“Uno de los objetivos de nuestra Asociación es combatir el uso de software ilegal en Cibers y Locutorios y a partir de ahora, con las herramientas que promocionamos en esta Campaña, será mucho más fácil, rápido y económico. Sin duda una gran iniciativa porque en España está aumentando la apertura de este tipo de locales utilizando software ilegal lo que implica una desventaja competitiva y de costes para los establecimientos legales”, ha declarado José Cabido Alonso, Presidente de ALYCE.

Licencia de Derechos de Alquiler de Windows

Los negocios que operan en base al alquiler del PC a una tercera persona, como son los Cibercafés y los Locutorios, necesitan de una licencia especial de Microsoft para los productos Microsoft (como por ejemplo el Sistema Operativo Windows) que utilizan en los PCs que alquilan por tiempo de uso al público en general.

Esta Licencia de Derechos de Alquiler (Rental Rights) se concede, a coste cero, para los Cibercafés y Locutorios que se adhieran a la Campaña y cubre dichos derechos durante 1 año (a partir de la firma del contrato) para todas las licencias legales de Microsoft Windows (en todas sus versiones) instaladas en los PCs del Cibercafé o Locutorio. La condición para adherirse a la Campaña es que todos los PCs del establecimiento sean legales, para lo que Microsoft ofrece el producto GGK (Get Genuine Kit) de Windows XP Profesional que permite regularizar los PCs sin una licencia legal de Windows XP.

Kit de Acceso Compartido

El Kit de Acceso Compartido, que se distribuirá de forma gratuita a los Cibers y Locutorios que se adhieran a la Campaña, es un conjunto de aplicaciones, herramientas e información de utilidad para la gestión y buen funcionamiento del negocio.

Entre las aplicaciones destacan SteadyState™, una herramienta para proteger el PC de los cambios que los usuarios introduzcan. Entre las herramientas destacan: Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 Express, Visual Studio Express y Visual C#® Express.

Para recibir más información sobre la Campaña (adherirse y recibir las condiciones a cumplir y el contrato) o saber cómo adquirir los “Get Genuine Kit” de Microsoft y poder legalizar sus PCs, ALYCE y Microsoft han habilitado un email: alyce@alyce.org.es al que se puede escribir incluyendo los datos de contacto (e-mail y teléfono) para recibir ayuda.

También se puede conseguir más información en http://www.alyce.org.es/ o en www.microsoft.es/cibercafes  

Para más información:

-Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/es/es/default.aspx

-Windows:

http://www.microsoft.com/spain/windows/default.mspx

-Microsoft Internet Explorer:

http://www.microsoft.com/spain/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx

-Linux:

Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu-es.org/

Debian: http://www.debian.org/index.es.html

OpenSuse: http://es.opensuse.org/Bienvenidos_a_openSUSE.org

-ClamWin:

http://es.clamwin.com/

-Otros antivirus:

Avast: http://www.avast.com/esp/download-avast-home.html

Grisoft: http://www.avg.com/

Aplicaciones de seguridad: http://alerta-antivirus.inteco.es/portada/index.php

-OpenOffice:

http://es.openoffice.org/

-Navegadores en la red:

Mozilla Firefox: http://www.mozilla-europe.org/es/firefox/

Google Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome/index.html?hl=es

Flock: http://flock.com/

Opera: http://www.opera.com/

Safari para PC: http://www.apple.com/es/safari/

-Gimp:

http://www.gimp.org.es/

-Alyce:

http://www.alyce.org.es/

Fuente: comunicado de la asociación ALYCE.

Fecha: 3 de noviembre de 2008.

Jorge Hierro Álvarez

Consultoría de Nuevas Tecnologías e Internet

http://jorgehierro.wordpress.com

PCI Compliance is something every eCommerce and Managed Hosting company must deal with these days.  OMS Online has to not only make sure that its Data Centers are safe and secure, but it must also make sure that all of its employees and software programmers have their laptops and workstations fully protected with not just Anti Virus and Firewall tools, but now with also Anti Spyware tools. 

Perhaps you may relate to this that as a developer we all have to install so many different softwares, api’s, development kits, and tools on our machines that by the time we are done setting that up our station, we somehow successfully manage to make it slow and dreadful regardless of how powerful or new the computer maybe.  Now that our employers require us to install an Anti Spyware tool on top of our existing Anti Virus and Firewall tools, that’s even more taxing on our machines and its only bringing down our productivity levels.  So what do 90% of all developers I know do? 

Of course, they will find a way to disable them when no one is looking.  However this practice is quite risky not only for our networks, machines, communication, etc’s safety, but also for the company who the developer works for in order for them to remain compliant and not avoid hefty penalties from the Payment Card Industry to whom they report to via On Site Audits, etc. 

The million dollar question remains though.  Which Vendor offers the best and the most light weight Anti Virus, Firewall, and Spyware Solution which will not cause more problems than what we already have on our stations?  Sure there are so many reviews online from PC Mag to Consumer Reports, but no one reviews it from a developers point of view.

From our experience at OMS Online, we have already tried Symantec, McAfee, & BitDefender solutions for about a year to two years each now.  They all have their kinks and they all slow down our machines.  If I had a choice I would recommend none of them and tell you to try something else.  But if you stuck a gun to my head and told me to chose one out of those 3 options, I would chose BitDefender most likely because though it has issues its probably the lightest amongst the three.  McAfee and Symantec both have issues where they mess up your networking settings specially during VPN connections, crash while developing apps, give weird issues, etc.  BitDefender also has a history of crashing while programming and its Firewall tool is not as configurable as McAfee’s and Symantec’s which prevents me from accessing certain things when I VPN into our corporate network, but atleast it doesn’t bog down the computer as much as the other two.  We have reported this to BitDefender multiple times but they have never replied back with a solution for this particular issue.   

Our license with BitDefender is expiring in 5 days.  99% chance we will not be renewing with them.  Our eyes are currently set on GriSoft.com’s AVG solution.  Perhaps you have some experience with this?  If so I would love to hear your feedback.  If not, maybe you will hear from me a year from now.  Wish us luck as I am hoping AVG from Grisoft.com will be the answer to all our developers problems and it will let us and our employer OMS Online remain PCI compliant.

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I had a massive scare yesterday. My computer refused to boot. This was disastrous. Like, on a scale of 1-10, it was a catastrophic 8. ‘Cos like all lazy creatures I hadn’t made a back up.

Everything was fine till about ten days ago. And then this ominous message about some Trojan horse started flashing on the screen. Pretty soon my pretty wall paper was gone, replaced by an ugly electric blue screen with an uglier yellow strip across it sporting an insidious, “Spyware detected on your computer.” I wasn’t wild about it. My Van Gogh replaced with this?

The message also suggested that I install and antivirus to get rid of the digital equine creature. I thought that was strange ‘cos I had some pretty kickass McAfee stuff, plus some AVG protection. Admittedly, the AVG 7.5 was a little antiquated and had been warning me about its imminent expiry for some time. I, of course, did little else about it other than murmur a something to the effect of ‘rest in peace.’ Come to think of it, AVG’s expiry coincided with the appearance of the Trojan horse. Am I being totally paranoiac, or is there a connection?

I would have done nothing about it, except the message about the Trojan horse irritatingly kept popping up every 20 seconds or so. So yesterday, when I read about AVG 8 freeware in the papers, I decided to download and install it. Only, once I installed the software, my computer refused to boot!  Apparently Grisoft aren’t joking when they claim that AVG 8 is the securest anti-virus software. The software is so secure it refuses even the owner entry into the computer.

Anyway, after an anxious half hour, I restarted the comp in safe mode and uninstalled AVG 8. I can once again boot my comp normally but the problem about spyware and the Trojan horse persists. Any solutions?

If you hit the interwebs, don’t be surprised when it hits back. (The anger of the crowds)

There are plenty of stories on how numbers of people use the web for righting wrongs; catching petty thiefs, freeing a reporter from prison in a foreign land, fighting a cult (or religion depending on how you look at it). Well, this is not as cool an any of those stories, but if you have a popular blog or web site, you may have noticed your web traffic bills going up and perhaps the traffic logs on your server not quite matching up with Google analytics or other JavaScript based counting systems. If you haven’t, well, you should really pay attention to those things. This is a story of a company that decided it knew best how to protect us, regardless of whom pays for that attempt at protection. Who is guarding the guards?

AVG 8 by Grisoft, the Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Spam, (but pro DoS) company bought and bundled a new product called LinkScanner from Exploit Prevention Labs to its software package. Basically the program will check every hyperlink on a search return, from a Google search for example, to see if it is a valid site or not. If your blog or web page is in that return, linkScanner will send a ‘click’ to your page. If it determines your site is valid, it will put a nice green check mark by the link.
Suddenly, you have WAY more traffic then ever! Your site is more popular! Because your good enough, your smart enough and doggone it, people like you. The only problem is this is all FAKE traffic. And with near 20 million installs, (70 million total users) that is a LOT of fake traffic. At Mashable, where I currently work, we enjoyed this mess just as many other popular blogs and sites. At first we did not know what was going on, in fact our first thought was a denial of service (DoS) attack. However, we discovered that this spike in traffic had a common tread. The header looked like this..
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1;1813.
After a bit a research, we saw that other web masters were seeing the same issue and it was sourced to AVG’s toolbar. To deal with the flood of traffic, yet still insure we get the nice green check mark, we sent back to AVG a single page. Other webmasters redirected the traffic back to AVG as a form of protest. A few people climbed trees in Berkeley as protest, but that did not have much effect.
The outcry however, started to build. Sites like forums.whirlpool.net.au and theregister.co.uk became exchange central in the fight to pressure AVG to stop this practice. And AVG heard the outcry. However, instead of stopping, chief of research Roger Thompson made the statement that was the equivalent of the shot hear around the world: “I don’t want to sound flip about this, but if you want to make omelettes, you have to break some eggs.” Just who’s eggs are we talking about here? Together with the pros at Media Temple, we were able to keep the traffic under control using various techniques. But for how long? There was talk that AVG was going to change the header so that no one can tell the difference between it and a real user. The web masters of the world shuttered.

And then they did it.

Now the webmasters of the world were Angry. And you do not to make them angry. A movement began to recommend removal of AVG software from all client machines, header and GET calls were examined to continue filtering, discussions of redirecting and flagging AVG as spam were banted about. Revolution was in the air. You could smell it… And just as fast as it started, it ended..

from the whirlpool forums http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1007329&r=15942208#r15942208

Peter Cameron, Managing Director of AVG Australia / New Zealand here again.

As promised, I am letting you know that the latest update for AVG Free edition has addressed and rectified the issue that Simon and other members of Whirlpool (and others) have brought to our attention. This update has now been released to users and has also been built into the latest installation package for AVG Free.

It took a few days, but we saw our junk traffic drop and systems returning to normal. There were great hazaa’s and high fives across the web. The anger of the crowds forced a change in the system.

Although this was a battle won, the l33t war has just begun. The idea that a product with enough distribution can take upon itself to enforce their ‘view’ of how systems should work, and disregard the pain and trouble it can cause others on the system violate the whole ethos of trying to make the web work for everyone. From my point of view, linkscanner was a form of zombie DoS agent. By cloaking itself and forcing high loads on other systems for its own ends places a cost that must be born by all service providers. What if Microsoft decides one day to do the same thing? Or Google? Giants like these may not be so quickly turned. For now, wiskey for my men and beer for my horses, for together, we dined in hell!