posted at Avira Antivir Support Forum today:

I just upgraded to 3 years of Premium Avira Suite (having done a 30 day eval. with Firewall, so no need for Online Armor) and everything is smooth).

But my old Compaq machine has Free Avira and Online Armor as well as MalwareBytes (free).

I do use Paltalk on this machine, and neither Avira nor MalwareBytes has ever caught anything. But Online Armor reported some very suspicious activity from Paltalk. I allowed Online Armor to block certain things, and I still had a fine long session in Paltalk Tuesday night. But ever since, Online Armour has been doing OAminidumps. I SUBMIT them via the minidump submit. When I go to DELETE, the machine hangs for a long time and then reboots. I booted in safe (F8) mode and the defragger said I needed to do chkdsk /f and that it could not be performed at the moment but would be performed at next reboot. When I rebooted, out of curiosity, I chose the Ubuntu boot, and it did a bit of fixing and then Ubuntu came up fine and stable. But each time I boot into Windows, I get the same Online Armor minidump crash. I am in safe mode right now on that machine after the chkdsk /f successfully ran. It is allowing me to do a defrag right now. As soon as that finishes, I think I shall delete Online Armor, with the assumption that the OAdump business will go away. I do wonder about the Paltalk issues, but I really enjoy Paltalk, and I know so many people around the world who use it, so it cannot be too malicious or destructive. I shall also post this at Online Armor’s forum, but I am curious to get the feedback from people here. Thanks for your great support!

Someone suggested at Avira that it would make more sense to tell Tall Emu, the makers of Online Armor, to which I reply:

[quote='Farger',index.php?page=Thread&postID=875210#post875210]HI WilliamBuell,

I think that more reasonable will be to ask Tallemu about this :S[/quote]

Of course I am going to tell Tallemu about this, but it IS a legitimate Avira issue with regard to the question of whether Paltalk is doing something questionable, and is escaping the attention of Avira AND malwarebytes.

The two strange things that happened with regard to Online Armor and Paltalk are that Paltalk when I first launched it, tried to access my drive directly, and Online Armor said this is a very suspicious activity. The other thing, which I blocked, had something to do with some key.dll. I didnt like the looks of it, so I blocked it, but Paltalk launched fine and I was in it for an hour. But after that, all this crash business started.

I was marveling to myself how a firewall can detect suspicious activity which an AV scanner might miss. So, this in itself is a valid issue to raise on the Avira forum, NAMELY, what can be said about those suspicious activities which only a Firewall can catch? There is one antivirus someone recommended to me which supposedly detects suspicious activity and can catch a virus or malware on DAY ZERO. I am perfectly happy with Avira Premium Suite on my wife’s computer, because I want everything integrated and straight foward, and the Avira fire wall is not “in your face” every other minute with questions.

A side note of interest: I find that I am able to access Paltalk on my Ubuntu machine via Firefox. Initially, I could not get audio or mic to work, but then Firefox installed an Adobe flash update, and suddenly it was working. So, I imagine I would be safe from Paltalk monkey business on an Ubuntu machine in a Firefox browser.

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see flyer for other contact information

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Paltalk, an online video chat firm, announced today that it has acquired Vumber, a virtual phone service, in an effort to capture additional revenues by offering virtual phone numbers to existing subscribers. The deal could provide Paltalk with additional features to bolster its existing video conferencing product, and give it a leg up against services like Skype in an industry that’s becoming increasingly competitive.

Like Google (s goog) Voice, Vumber was created to allow users to create virtual phone numbers that link to their mobile or home numbers, adding an extra layer of privacy and security to consumers who don’t want to share their personal contact information. But despite having a paid subscription model, Vumber, which was founded in 2006, was never able to realize the revenue it needed to support its expenses.

The acquisition builds on an existing relationship between Paltalk and Vumber. The companies entered into a partnership and a revenue-sharing agreement in early 2008, when Paltalk made disposable phone numbers from Vumber available to its video conferencing customers. Knowing that its partner was having financial troubles, Paltalk  made an offer to pick up the Vumber assets and integrate them into its own service.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Paltalk CEO Jason Katz said in an interview that four Vumber employees have joined the Paltalk staff. In addition to personnel, Paltalk gained all of Vumber’s hardware, two trademarks, and one patent on anonymous calling that is pending approval.

There will be no interruption in service to existing Vumber users. Paltalk hopes to bring more functionality to the Vumber platform, such as offering PC-to-phone calls out, as well as PC-to-phone calls in. “It’s a matter of making some of our features available [to Vumber], and making some of their features available on Paltalk without losing the brands for either one,” Katz said.

Paltalk, which offers a video social-networking service that allows multiple users to chat in real time, has been profitable since 2004. The company was founded in 1998, and introduced a subscription service to its users in 2001. Katz wouldn’t disclose how many of Paltalk’s 4 million active users are subscribers, but said that 85 percent of the company’s revenue comes from subscriptions.

In addition to acquiring Vumber’s assets, being profitable enabled Paltalk to buy out venture capital firm Softbank Capital Partners’ stake in it earlier this year. Softbank paid $6 million for 20 percent of Paltalk in 2004, but Katz said his company was able to buy back that stake at a solid profit to the VCs. And now, with a profitable video conferencing business and new virtual phone features, Paltalk has even more artillery against competitors.

My reply at bleepingcomputer.com

One member answered my question:
Why would plugging a PC, no matter what OS is installed on it, into a modem/router change it? So no I wouldn’t worry about the Westell.

My reply:

Thanks! That’s just what I needed to know. But, obviously, I am not technically versed. So what is OBVIOUS to you may not be obvious to me.

A professor of Russian language, in the 1970s once said to me “There is no such thing as a foolish question, for IF it is a question in your mind, it is a LEGITIMATE question. There are only foolish answers.” Beginners should be encouraged to ask questions, and not ridiculed, for that is how they learn. And those who are fortunate enough to have expertise and experience should not gloat in their knowledge as if it were wisdom.

I once mentioned to an examining physician something very obscure and little know, about the anastamosis (joining) of a one vein to the left renal vein which is totally different on the right. He was astounded and asked how I could possible know that, not being a physician. I explained that all one has to do is read, and remember a fact, and the only difference between a physician and a plumber, is that plumbers still make house calls, but physicians do not.

Plus, if I had 5 routers, and 3 providers, and money flowing out my kazoo, I would just plug the cable in and see what happens. But, if something DOES go wrong, then since I only have one router and one provider, then I must spend hours on the phone with tech support, or, if that fails, spend days waiting for a technician to show up from Verizon.

Oh, by the way, I found a free beginners manual in PDF, on Ubuntu, which also mentions that IF the Ubuntu machine has an internet card, THEN connecting it to the router should give instantaneous internet access.

http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html

And, this is a bit off topic, but I spent much of last night experimenting with that Ubuntu chat program EMPATHY. When I initially clicked on Empathy, it launched a wizard asking me first if I wanted a Jabber account, and then asking me if I want to add AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc.

I only added Yahoo. Later, I tired to add other things and could not see how to get back into that wizard dialogue. I googled and found other posts suggesting that there was some problem. I UNINSTALLED REMOVED and reinstalled EMPATHY, but still no wizard. THEN I discovered that F4 will bring up a window to ADD other chat programs (which is not intuitively obvious to a beginner). I was pleased to see that my Wubi Ubuntu install is stable enough to remove and reinstall Empathy without crashing things.

I am very curious to explore the limits of the Wubi install on a Windows machine. Tonight I will have that old tower, and do a pure Ubuntu desktop install, and first I will try the wrapper technique with a Belkin Wi-Fi, and later I will experiment with the cable from the Ethernet to the router. I was a bit confused as to whether I should install Ubuntu DESKTOP or Ubuntu Server, but reading up on it made me realize that I am better off with the Desktop, because that gives the most GUI, and then ADD LAMP (Apache, MySQL, PhP) with the synaptic manager, since that is all I really want anyway and I will not use the machine as an actual server to other clients.

دخلت احد المحلات وكان المكان هادئا نوعا ما واسترعى انتباهي موقف لم استطع نسيانه عندما دخلت ام وابنها وابنتها لابتياع بعض الاغراض الولد كان في سن ال11 عش والبت كانت صغيرة فما كان من الام الا ان اجلست ابنتها على الكرسي الوحيد الموجود ونظرت الى الطفل ذو الحادية عشر ووجدته ينظر في ارجاء المحل سريعا وذهب الى كرسي اخر مركون في الزاوية واسرع وقدمه الى والدته كي تستريح شعرت بزهو شديد تجاه هذا العمل الرائع الذي ينم على الانتماء الجميل من ابن صغير لوالدته التي تعبت في تربيته وتقدمت نحو الطفل وانا احييه قائلة بارك الله فيك فقد وصانا  الخالق عز وجل بمراعاة الابوين وقد اعجبني جدا ادبك واخلاقك العليا, وتقدمت نحو الام احييها ايضا لانها عرفت كيف تربي ابنها على حسن الاخلاق ومكارم العالم الانساني

وفي عالمنا اليوم قلما نرى مثل هذا الطفل المؤدب وايضا قلما نرى الامهات والاباء يشدون على ايدي اولادهم ليربوهم على الصلاة وتطبيق الاحكام الالهية فالتربية على ثلاث انواع

التربية الجسمانية: وتختص برعاية مستلزمات الجسد من ناحية التغذية والرياضة والنوم والاهتمام بالصحة

التربية الانسانية: وتختص بالتعليم والثقافة والعمل وتبادل المعلومات وزيادة الخبرات

التربية الروحية: وهي العمل بالاحكام الالهية كالصلاة والصوم والتمسك بمكارم الاخلاق كالامانة والوفاء وغيرهم

يتفضل حضرة بهاء الله (يابن الانسان لو تكون ناظرا الى الفضل ضع ما ينفعك وخذ ما ينتفع به العباد. وان تكن ناظرا الى العدل اختر لدونك ما تختاره لنفسك ان الانسان مرة يرفعه الخضوع الى سماء العزة والاقتدار واخرى ينزله الغرور الى اسفل مقام الذلة والانكسار)

Von Montag bis Freitag, manchmal auch an Wochenenden ab 18:45 Uhr (Isha-Gebet) auf Arabisch und Deutsch.

Themen:

Montag: Riyadu Salihin – Haditherklärungen
Dienstag: Subul As-Salam – Fiqh
Mittwoch: Tadjweed-Regeln, Rezitation, Auswendig – Quran
Donnerstag: Buch von Tauhid – Aqidah & Arabisch für Anfänger
Freitag: Die Kalifen – Geschichte
Samstag/Sonntag: Al Jawab Al Kafi& Manhadj Al Qasidin

Ar-Rahman Moschee

Roscherstraße 33a

04105 Leipzig

Der Unterricht wird auch im Paltalk live übertragen im Raum “Deutschsprachiger Islaamunterricht Germany” (Download unter www.paltalk.com)

Die Unterrichte können auch online unter www.audioislaam.de oder www.quran-sunna.de angehört werden.

I made breakfast while I waited for the update. It is a WONDERFUL thing to be subscribed to Avira email notices, because they come to my Blackberry, and right inside the email is a link for the MANUAL update should the automatic not work for some reason. I do notice that my Premium Avira updates instantly every time, so no problems with paid Avira in that regard.

The Avira red banner flashing up is rather comforting as a sign of success. I am now the proud owner of one free classic Avira, one 30 day trial Premium Security Suite (which I shall surly purchase) AND last night I installed free Avira on my mother-in-law’s machine. She had NO antivirus and I was shocked to see that no infections were discovered. Thee installation and UPDATE went very smoothly.

I am often on free Paltalk which is advertisement supported, and for the first time, I entered Paltalk while Avira Premium Security Suite was running, and right away Avira caught three infections! I became suspicious some of Paltalk’s advertisers are up to no good. But then, I switched to my other machine which has free Avira with no fire wall, and noticed that I was not picking up any infections, so perhaps it was just coincidence. I do know some of the Paltalk team so I feel that Paltalk itself is trustworthy, so if there are problems it is the advertisers or some other source. Perhaps it is the case that logging into such a product exposes one’s IP address to predators, but I don’t know.

On my old machine running Premium Avira Security Suite, I spent hours archiving thousands of old files to a USB drive in the hopes of reducing scan time for Avira and Malwarebytes. I uninstalled many programs which were never used, and I deleted 3 Windows users which were never used. So my Avira scan in Premium ran in under 2 hours in normal Windows mode. I had tried to run Malwarbytes in windows and it was very slow for some reason, still running after 8 hours, so I aborted it. This morning, I booted the same machine in SAFE mode (F8) and Malwarebytes ran in 2 hours, and caught two infections in the RESTORE areas.

I did notice the post of one disgruntled user who passed by to say they had installed a competitor’s AV, and the staff retort was “how is their message board doing”. Out of curiosity, I did try to visit said message board, and sensed that it is not as active or responsive as the Avira forum.

What does scare me a bit regarding all these virus/trojan/malware issues is that I am age 60 and have been working with computers since 1978 (including a Radio Shack Model I and Z80 assembler) and yet I find some of these tasks daunting, so I pity the poor devil who is totally baffled by these sorts of technical things.

I do intend to use American Express to purchase my Premium license (although I also have Visa/Mastercard), and was curious if Avira accepts Amex. A search on the forum led to a post in French, which was then translated by Babelfish, and confirmed that Amex is accepted.

I do have some curiosity questions in the back of my mind regarding the license as a physical downloadable entity. I presume that should a machine with premium on it die and need replacing, then all one has to do is reinstall Avira using said key. I assume that each time one boots up, the Avira software contacts a server and confirms that it is indeed the only copy of that license running. In other words, I assume that a license may be transferred to another machine when it becomes necessary.

Another curiosity question is this: IF I had to replace a Dell XP TOMORROW, should I consider a Windows 7, or go with Mac, or some kind of Linux/Ubuntu. It would be interesting to hear opinions on that one. I notice that one trusted member’s signature swears that they will never touch XP service pack 3 again. All the XP’s that I have worked with during the past 8 years seemed to work reasonable well.

I do know some Windows fans who do a lot with Adobe flash and laugh at Mac users who experience more instability with Flash (but then that was about a year ago.)

My boss from Paris, for 3 years, lugged his Mac notebook all around the world, and used it in the office on our Wi-Fi, and it seemed to serve him well.

I suppose it all depends on what sorts of things one cares to do. The photoshop graphic design world seems to center on Mac.

You know, speaking of Paltalk, it would be possible to have a free Avira chat room. All one needs is a headset and microphone, and the voice quality is excellent. There are thousands of rooms, many of which are active 24/7. One amazing room is run by Vietnamese around the world who want to master English. There are always at least 50 people there, 24/7 doing exercises, asking and answering grammatical questions. I was astounded by their dedication, industry and tenacity. It is interesting also to note that there are FIFTY Kurdish speaking rooms. I have been on the internet since 1998 and never saw a Kurdish presence.

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