CyberCoyote - February 26, 2009

NEWS and NOTES
Next week...

Due to technical difficulties, the program for today was delayed until next week. We'll have a few minutes of business next week, followed by the photo enhancement topics.

Next year...

Since today's program was delayed, George used the time to explore what the members present would like to see in the program for next season. He'll send the list we generated out to the Yahoo! Group, and solicit ideas that we missed.

What do I do if my computer contracts a virus?

That was one of the topics that came up today. I's not the kind of question that has a concise, definitive answer, other than, "it depends." :^) For one thing, it depends on what you use your computer for.

If you're using your PC for financial transactions, beyond just purchasing with a credit card, you might want to restore your computer to the way it was from the factory. That's because you simply can't be confident you've removed every tentacle of the infection.

If you'll be happy just to get your computer running cleanly again, you'll need to use a methodical approach. You can start here.

TECH TOPICS
System Restore

Many people have been disappointed to learn that Windows' System Restore doesn't always fix their Windows problem. Often that's because of the limitations of System Restore. Microsoft has a well written article titled Windows XP System Restore Is Easy to Use. There you'll learn more about what System Restore does, and how to use it.

Since I rely on drive images to recover from Windows disasters, I turn Windows Restore off completely. ;-) [Start > Control Panel > System > System Restore > Turn off System Restore on all drives]

Free online storage from Microsoft [updated]

Microsoft now offers five or more online services that include file storage, including Windows Live Sync, Windows Live SkyDrive, and Live Mesh. They have also succeeded in making them confusing if not mysterious. For example, Windows Live Folder is now Windows Live Sync, even though it seems it would have become Skydrive.

Skydrive is Microsoft's only free service that gives you file storage without complications. You can store, access, and share your files from anywhere online. You get 25 GB of free online storage, and there's no software to install. It's the one that most of us (CyberCoyote readers) would find most useful.

Sync is quite a bit different from SkyDrive. First, Windows Live Sync requires you to install special software. You can synchronize up to 20 folders containing up to 20,000 files each with Sync. Files can't be larger than 4 gigabytes (GB). But that space is not online. It is on your own computer(s). That's why it's called "Sync". You can also create "shared" folders, but each person that you share the folder with must install the Sync software. None of this sharing or syncing works when your computer is offline. ;-)

Windows Live Mesh is also free, and offers 5 GB of storage, but it's primarily intended to allow you to control your other computers from the one you're currently using. Live Mesh requires you to install the Live Mesh software on each computer you want to connect to. It's fun to play with, but it's more suited to road warriors and other people who work from more than one location.

SECURITY

Your name server, at 208.67.219.13, appears to be safe, but make sure the ports listed below aren't following an obvious pattern (:1001, :1002, :1003, or :30000, :30020, :30100...).

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Requests seen [for my IP]:
208.67.---.---:39859 TXID=21080
208.67.---.---:56858 TXID=46210
208.67.---.---:17938 TXID=50127
208.67.---.---:24726 TXID=44834
208.67.---.---:32287 TXID=7847

How safe is your DNS?

DNS serves as the "Phone Book for the Internet". It's been six months since Dan Kaminsky revealed a fatal flaw in virtually all of the Internet's more than 200,000 DNS servers. A large fraction of them have not been patched yet. One of them could be the one you use. ;-)

This is a serious flaw that makes it easy for a cyber-criminal to steer your browser to his malicious site. You can check your own ISP's DNS server's vulnerability at DoxPara Research. Or better yet, switch from your ISP's DNS server to OpenDNS, which has always been secure against this attack. ;-)

The results from DoxPara — above — for my DNS server instruct me to "make sure the ports listed below aren't following an obvious pattern..." I've indicated what they're referring to by highlighting in red what to look for. The five-digit numbers should appear to be random. [questions]

ODDS and ENDS
Brave new world

Help with homework.

What can you do when your printer goes berserk?

Just pause it. {Sorry}

That's all, folks.