An interesting method to assure that your computer is properly protected is to check it with a Microsoft program called Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer which is supposed to run around one's computer and diagnose the status of all of the security patches and to probe various other portions of the operating system.
This seems to be a two edged sword as shown by a e-mail forwarded by Bob Meltzer who included a copy of a San Jose Mercury News article explaining how the results of Windows Update is inconsistent with the results of the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (Google: Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer).
Therefore, it is your best interest to run the program and learn what you can about the condition of your computer's programming and security health, and to act accordingly. Please make a backup before beginning any such actions.
80% of spam is now coming to you from zombies. That means that the persons sending the spam to you are not a person or two from a single source, but is an amalgam of thousands of computers that have been compromised and now have bots on them waiting to receive the text of spam and then forward the spam to a list that was preloaded at an earlier time. I assume that none of these zombies are SPAUG member computers as you all have been diligent to be stealthy. Right?
There is a move afoot to release into the wild anti-spam bots by the good guys. If there are thousands of bots residing in zombies, then the criteria for the original infection can be established and duplicated with a bot that wipes out other bots. So the clandestine war continues.
SP2 (Service Pack 2) for XP had had its (at least) second internal release and beta test and the final release is probably at least two or three months away. I am happy to have Microsoft take the additional time necessary to assure that the final product is effective and bug free - a frankly impossible task given the amount of variation out there.
No matter what happens, when XP SP2 is released, plan to just sit for a month or two to assure that all is well. This is the position that most professional IT managers take - they wait and watch. Witness the fact that XP is used in the home, but that mighty few IT managers have even moved from Windows 2000 to XP anything. Windows 2000 Professional works and doesn't crash in an industrial environment; XP (all versions) does.
Returning to the subject of spam, I have been attending the various seminars put on by Microsoft about current topics, including resolution of the spam problem. Essentially what is coming down the line in about a year and half is a version of Internet Caller ID wherein you will be able to register (and be verified somehow) and all of those who are among the unwashed will be ignored. There will be some changes to the motherboard to assure proper registration and that seems to be a really sticky point - having to do some sort of hardware upgrade to get away from spam. We'll see.
And finally, yet another entreaty to ensure that your wireless transmissions are encrypted to keep neighbors or persons cruising down the street from using your computer's Internet connection, or delving into the contents of your hard drive.
Members of the Club CD SIG, Jim Dinkey, John Buck, John Sleeman, and Stan Hutchings, gave demonstrations of many of the programs on the Mid 2004 CD. Between demonstrations, Bev Altman, Ron Nicholas and Susan Mueller distributed many door prizes to lucky ticket holders. Some of the door prizes were: WinFax Pro Version 10.0, WinFax Pro Version 7.0 for Windows 95, Resume Plus for Windows, Microsoft Spanish Deluxe, Conner Backup Exec Version 2.1 for Windows (3.5" disks), You Don't Know Jack (movies & sports), Discovering Your Hard Drive, Microsoft MapPoint 60-day trial, Corel All Movie Guide (1996), IBM OS/2 Warp Version 3, OS/2 Warp for Dummies (book), PowerQuest Lost & Found , Omar Sharif on Bridge (5.25 & 3.5" disk), Kensington Thinking Mouse (serial/PS/2 hardware mouse), Micrografx American Greetings CreataCard Plus, Places & Faces Clip Art (3.5" disks), Power Quest Partition Magic 7.0, Power Quest Drive Image 2002, The Savvy Investor's Internet Resource (IDG book & CD), Corel Draw 4.0 (12-3.5" disks).
These days there aren't many reasons to use an unsigned driver other than for hot new games or for aging devices. You can check whether a device has a certified driver by going to the Windows catalog (www.microsoft.com/windows/catalog/) and typing in the product name, though this won't necessarily have a direct link to the most recent version.
You can update drivers from Microsoft's site using Windows Update, but you'll likely find newer drivers with more features on vendor sites.
Win XP also lets you determine how much feedback you get when an unsigned driver is about to be installed. Go to Control Panel, click on Performance and Maintenance | System, choose the Hardware tab, and then click on the Driver Signing button. You can choose from three actions for Windows to take if it detects an unsigned driver: Ignore the situation and don't ask for approval, warn first and let the user decide, or block all unsigned drivers. Most users leave the setting at the default middle option.
Windows XP represents a major step forward in stability for users, in large part because of its certification program for drivers. This program sets minimum standards of performance and stability for drivers that can be bundled with Windows or downloaded from the Microsoft site, or that can carry a "Designed for Windows XP" logo. See www.microsoft.com/winlogo/benefits for details.
You may wish to be a bit more aggressive in terms of removing…or preventing…spyware from getting in and potentially getting control of your computer. (This, I hope you already know, is a totally different issue than virus protection.) Here is some info on how I am currently handling that. A friend of mine just recently suggested I try Spyware Blaster, which you can get at this URL: www.spywareinfo.com/downloads.php?cat=sp#prevent.
While there, I also got Spyware Guard. And then there is, as I hope you already know, AdAware and SpyBot Search & Destroy. The latter has a new version out which includes something they call TeaTimer. (Both TeaTimer and Spyware guard are resident programs to prevent registry changes that spyware typically causes…or that's what I think they are. The folks who make TeaTimer haven't yet told us all of what it does.)
A good alternative to TeaTimer or Spyware Guard is Startup Monitor from www.sysinternals.com. (Also useful is their Startup Control Panel.) When I got all of these installed, ran them and let them "fix" every problem they found, my machine was well protected. So well, in fact, that a few of the web sites I used to visit from time to time are now totally inaccessible. (I guess they are deemed by one or another of these programs to be so bad that nothing can be shown of their web content without allowing some spyware access to my computer.)
Now, when I run either Spyware Search & Destroy or AdAware after an extensive web surfing session I get a report that says there are no new problems, which is a vast change from what I saw before I started using these latest programs.
Summary -- If your computer is slowing down when you're working online, it might be because ZoneAlarm (ZA) is monitoring your Antivirus (AV) software.
Info at last night's (6/9/2004) SPAUG meeting indicates that some people are having problems with the latest ZoneAlarm release (version 5.0.590.015) and Norton AntiVirus.
Beginning about the time I installed the latest ZA, my computer began often running slowly, timing out, and requiring many reboots when I was working with online items. I thought I was finally out of space, or needed to defrag my hard drive (either or both of which may still be true).
After last night's meeting, I Google™-searched for various ZoneAlarm problem combinations, and finally simply searched for ZoneAlarm "5.0.590.015". There were complaints about ZoneLabs using its customers for beta testing, etc.
Some people questioned whether ZA should be checking on the currency of their AntiVirus software. Picking up on this, I double-clicked on my Systray's ZA icon, and on ZA's left-column "Antivirus Monitoring". I turned off the monitoring -- and my PC's been running much better ever since.
This problem gives the opportunity to review what the situation is with CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) as compared to LCD panels. I just bought two CRTs (refurbished) at Micro Center for $60 each. New ones are going for about $130. Unless your CRT is still under warranty, basically you cannot get a CRT repaired for much less than $150 (not including shipping). So the cost of repairing is more than the cost of a new one, which means it is uneconomical to repair the tube after it is out of warranty.
So if you purchase a new one, what do you do with the old one? Palo Alto will accept CRTs for $20 if you are a resident of Palo Alto. Else, you can take it to Computer Recycling Inc. in Santa Clara www.crc.org/donate/index.html for free if manufactured after 1999, $10 before.
Incidentally, if you want to buy a computer, hit there at 8:45 some Saturday for some interesting bargains.