MikesWhatsNews 24, 06, 2005 in today's issue #786 Summer Holidays 2 US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin SB05-173 3 KnowPlay 4 SlickRun 5 Funtigo Page Creator 6 ATnotes 7 Guess-the-google 8 CCC TeemWork 9 Colorfull Outlook Express 10 Things You Need to do Before Disaster Strikes 11 Modem/Router Security HackFix Updates ____________________________________________________________ NOTE: Any time you see the " ++ ", it means there is more of the article, or story, on the linked site. Mike ____________________________________________________________ There is a complete archive of past MikesWhatsNews newsletters available to members on the Yahoo page, it is searchable by word or issue #. Here is the address direct to the messages; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MikesWhatsNews/messages and; //www.freelists.org/archives/mikeswhatsnews/ The HTML version is available here http://www.http://www.mwn.ca/ ____________________________________________________________ Please rate this Ezine at the Cumuli Ezine Finder http://www.cumuli.com/ezines/ra20853.rate <a href="http://www.cumuli.com/ezines/ra20853.rate";> AOL Users</a> ___________________________________________________________ Hi Folks I will be taking the summer off and there will be no scheduled post till the fall. I hope you all have a great summer get the opportunity to get out and enjoy it. ___________________________________________________________ 2 US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin SB05-173 http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/bulletins/SB05-173.html Summary of Security Items from June 15 through June 21 This bulletin provides a summary of new or updated vulnerabilities, exploits, trends, viruses, and trojans from June 15 through June 21, 2005. ____________________________________________________________ 3 KnowPlay? http://www.kplay.cc/reference.html KnowPlay is a gateway reference and research tool with "simple and fast access to dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, world atlas, rhyming dictionary, etc." Thanks to: Christy ____________________________________________________________ 4 SlickRun free http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/ Win 98 and later, 168KB. SlickRun is a free floating command line utility for Windows. SlickRun gives you almost instant access to any program or website. SlickRun allows you to create command aliases (known as MagicWords), so C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe becomes MAIL. Enter a web URL into SlickRun and it will launch your browser and navigate to the specified address. Run multiple programs in a few keystrokes, jot a note, look up a definition... SlickRun is the most natural way to interact with your computer. ++ ____________________________________________________________ 5 Funtigo Page Creator http://www.funtigo.com/ Create your online photo scrapbook within minutes! Design each album or Web page the way you want it: add text, backgrounds, clipart, or animated text balloons; move or resize your pictures right on the page. Photo sharing has never been this flexible! ++ Thanks to David at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/web_help/ ____________________________________________________________ 6 ATnotes http://atnotes.free.fr/index.html ATnotes is a FREE program which creates notes on the desktop. It lives in the system tray, takes very few resources, and supports a lot of languages. Don't lose your notes anymore With ATnotes, you will never miss important events or lose information. You can organize your notes by using folders, set alarm, change color or font and send your note to your colleagues. ++ ____________________________________________________________ 7 Guess-the-google http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/ After creating Montage-a-google, several people wrote to me suggesting I make a game based on the same technology. Montage-a-google is a simple web app that uses Google's image search to generate a large gridded montage of images based on keywords (search terms) entered by the user. Guess-the-google reverses this process by picking the keywords for you, the player must then guess what keyword made up the image - it's surprisingly addictive. From; The LangaList http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-06-20.htm ____________________________________________________________ 8 'Christy's Computer Corner' thanks to Christy; http://www.1stpick.org TeemWork freeware http://www.TeemWork.com/ TeemWork is business software, an ERP-like database-driven application. The purpose of TeemWork is to help you do more, faster, with less effort. The main functions of TeemWork are: Sharing lists of Contacts, tracking their Call History as well as to-do Follow-Ups about them. Human Resources Management Time Management Document Management Simple Easy Accounting You can use TeemWork by yourself or you can share TeemWork and your database with others either via your own network or via the Internet. ~~~~~~~~ 9 Colorfull Outlook Express You can use the Outlook Express Messages Rules feature to add some color to your messages. Let's suppose that you want to make sure you don't miss messages from certain addresses. Just choose Tools|Message Rules|Mail. Click New and then select the check box labeled "Where the From line contains people". Move down to the "Rule Description" section and click "contains people". Type in an address, click Add and then click OK. Now, move to the "Select the actions for your rule" area and select the "Highlight it with color" check box. Move to "Rule Description" and click "color". Select your color and click OK. Back in New Mail Rule, click OK. Now click OK in Message Rules to close it and save your settings. Any mail from the specified sender will appear in your selected color. Was this forwarded to you ? Get your own subscription here: <1stpickPCtips-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe> ____________________________________________________________ 10 Things You Need to do Before Disaster Strikes a. WinXP Bootup disks from MS b. Password Reset disk - in case you forget your password. c. A copy of your NTDETECT.COM, boot.ini, and ntldr files in a floppy. Make sure that you do not format it as a DOS or boot disk. Make sure the floppy is COMPLETELY EMPTY. You will need that when you can't boot to Windows due to one of them being corrupted. Boot up to that floppy and you will see what I mean. Your computer will boot up to it, then reads the 3 files, and then transfer control over to your system partition. All the 3 files are in the C:\ . Again, make sure all hidden files are made visible. Otherwise you can't find them. d. Emergency disk created by your antivirus e. Install Recovery Console if you are using XP. Not too sure if other Windows have this. And hopefully, you installed the Recovery Console before you installed SP2 of XP. :) f. Back up your MBR. In my MCH Forums (http://mycomputerheadaches.tz4.com), sorry shameless plug, there is a How To and Tutorial Forum and in it is a Backup Primer that I wrote. Follow my instructions there if you are brave enough :). Oh, the link is: How to back up the MBR (Master Boot Record) http://s11.invisionfree.com/SpunkyMcSpank/index.php?showtopic=35 g. Back up your BIOS either manually by copying them with pen and paper or by special-purpose utilities. I did mine using both methods :) h. This is optional: Clone your pristine partitions, without the spyware, any virus, defragged and scandisked, with all temp files deleted too. Use Acronis True Image. Install all your favorite programs and utilities then clone your whole drive on CDs, DVDs or another drive. To some people, this is a must. Thanks to: Sean at MCH Forums http://mycomputerheadaches.tz4.com ____________________________________________________________ 11 Modem/Router Security ~ Mike's Friday Tip I'm always looking for an extra layer of security. When I go away for a day or more I turn off the power bar that my modem and router are plugged into. The other day I learned something new, plug the power bar into a programmable timer. You can set the times when you need access to on and the rest of the time to off. Your modem/router don't need to be on when you are out or sleeping. With wireless routers becoming more commonplace the risk of hacking increases. Every step you take to secure your system makes it that much more difficult for the hackers. ____________________________________________________________ HackFix updates, thanks to Christy; staff@xxxxxxxxxxx Http://www.hackfix.org This weeks Virus Pattern Updates (06/23/2005) All Software listed Alphabetically by Company name as some companies manufacture more then one product. Aladdin Knowledge Systems Esafe Desktop/Gateway/Enterprise Last Updated June 23/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.esafe.com/esafe/downloads/virusig.asp Or From the Esafe folder in your Start Menu select Download Updates ~~~~~ AlWil Software Avast Antivirus Last Updated June 23/2005 To update your software: Visit: http://www.avast.com/ Or Right click on the AVAST icon in the system tray, Select iAVS Update, AVAST will check for updates and download the appropriate files as needed. ~~~~~ Authentium Software Systems Command antivirus Last Updated June 22/2005 To update your software Visit http://www.authentium.com/support/downloads/index.cfm ~~~~~ Center for Antivirus Technologies (CAT) Quickheal Last Updated June 23/2005 To update your software Visit: http://207.230.103.11/public/updates/updates.asp Or Open Quickheal select Utility from the top toolbar and liveupdate. Follow the onscreen prompts. Alternately you can select Liveupdate directly from the QuickHeal program menu on the startmenu. ~~~~~ Frisk Software Systems Fprot Last Updated June 20/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.f-prot.com/download/home_user/ ~~~~~ Computer Associates E-Trust Last updated June 23/2005 To update your software http://www3.ca.com/support/vicdownload/ Or From the Respective folder in your Start Menu select Autodownload For Vet Anti virus http://www.vet.com.au/html/software/update.html Be sure to have your Customer ID and your registered email address handy for verification. ~~~~~~ GeCad Software Rav (Reliable AntiVirus) Last Updated: June 23/2005 To update your software: Visit: http://www.ravantivirus.com/pages/dldupdate.php?type=Daily Or Open Rav and select Rav Update from the toolbar ~~~~~ Grisoft Inc. AVG Announcing the End of Support for AVG Anti-Virus 6.0 (December 31, 2004) Read more here: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_avg6_termination.php (New update details will be available soon) Last updated June 23/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/72/lng/us/tpl/tpl01 Or You can also perform updates using the Check for Updates option within the menu that opens after right mouse button clicking over the AVG icon located on the system tray. **Note: To help speed up AVG updates you can set your program to use an alternate download site. AVG 7.0 go to the control panel at the bottom is "Update Manager" select that and then select "settings" (at the bottom) in there under "url" you can add/delete/edit etc the update urls as needed you can move the order of the update urls as well.... such as putting the backup url first etc. You can add the secondary site (www.grisoft.cz) to help to ease the server and make your update go quicker as most don't use it! ~~~~~ H+Bedv AntiVir Last updated June 23/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.free-av.com/antivirus/allinonen.html Or Open AntiVir, from the top toolbar select Tools->start internet update and follow the on screen prompts. Vexira Last updated June 23/2005 To update your software Visit: no visable update page on site main page at http://www.centralcommand.com/index.html Or Open Vexira, from the top toolbar select Tools->start internet update and follow the on screen prompts. Vexira Antivirus is marketed by Central Command however it is the same program as Antivir with only a different name. ~~~~~ Kaspersky Kaspersky Anti-Virus Last updated June 23/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.kaspersky.com/updates.asp Or Open AVP from the top toolbar click Tools-> Update virus definition Or From the Kaspersky folder in your Start Menu select AVP updater **Note: Improved update accessiblity. To ease the update web traffic Kaspersky labs has additional servers for autoupdating. The program defaults to use one server but can be altered to check a variety of servers. Select Kaspersky updater, select update via the internet to open the drop down box(es) select "location" Check the box labeled "Use alternate locations from the list" select next and next to update. This option should stay selected after the first time. This helps Kaspersky lighten the load for updates and helps you obtain updates easier. ~~~~~ Network Associates Mcafee Last updated June 22/2005 To update your software For Mcafee Visit http://www.networkassociates.com/us/downloads/updates/superdat_download.asp (for Virus and Engine updates) Drsolomn (Product no longer available for new users however updates still available for current users): Go to the following Internet site: http://download.mcafee.com/updates/4x.asp IMPORTANT: When you get to this site you may notice that it refers to VirusScan. This update is not only for VirusScan. It also works with Dr.Solomon's. Or Open your respective software virus scan scheduler, double click Auto update, click Run Now to do a manual live update, or click Schedule to set up a timed live update. ~~~~~ Norman Data Defence Norman Virus Control Last updated June 23/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.norman.com/downloads.shtml#definition_files_updates Be sure to have your Valid Username and password handy for verification. Or From the Norman folder in your Start Menu select Internet Update **Note Norman Virus Control web updates are only for version prior to 5.0. Norman 5.0 can only be updated via the update in the program itself. ~~~~~ Softwin BitDefender Last Updated June 17/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/downloads.php?menu_id=19&s_id=3 Or Open BitDefender select Protection Options->live upgrade Or From the BitDefender folder in your Start Menu select Bitdefender Live ~~~~~ Sophos Sophos Anti Virus Last IDE available June 23/2005 To obtain the latest IDE files Visit: http://www.sophos.com/downloads/ide/ **Note: Sophos does not update as other products do. They update the Engine/software once a month (or so) to include all the previous IDE files. New IDE files are available with new virus threats and must be downloaded individually until the next software update is available. Our update dates reflect the most recent available IDE file. ~~~~~ Symantec Nortons AntiVirus Last updated June 23/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/defs.download.html select your language -> product from the list Or Open Nortons software and click the "live update" button Or From the Nortons folder in your Start Menu select LiveUpdate - Norton Antivirus ~~~~~ Trend Micro PcCillin Last updated June 21/2005 To update your software Visit: http://www.antivirus.com/download/pattern.asp Be sure to have your Registration number handy for verification Or Open PcCillin click Update then click Update Now (or Update later to Schedule a timed update) **Note: Users of non-NPF (i.e., old 3-digit pattern format) compliant products will not be able to update to the pattern release indicated in this email. Non-NPF compliant products can only update to pattern 991, which was released March 7, 2005. TrendLabs urges all affected customers to apply the New Pattern Format solution at http://www.trendmicro.com/en/support/npf/overview.htm or upgrade to the latest product version to address this limitation. ~~~~~~~~~ If there is an Anti Virus program that is Not listed here that you would like to see added to the weekly updates list Please feel free to let us know. Remember Your anti virus software is only as good as the user... If you don't keep it updated it won't provide you with maximum protection. This weekly Update will be sent every Thursday on or after 6pm (eastern) to keep you up to date on virus pattern updates available. Virus patterns are checked for most recent update date as of 6pm Thursdays. ~~~~ ~ Hackfix Project Staff staff@xxxxxxxxxxx Http://www.hackfix.org 3017 St Clair Ave #176 Burlington, Ontario L7R 3L7 ____________________________________________________________ If you wish to unsubscribe from our list send an email to mikeswhatsnews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe Antivirus software is a good choice to scan your system for possible viruses, however no virus scanner is 100% effective as manufactures cannot keep up with the rapid change of viruses that happens daily. Be sure to update yours regularly. http://www.hackfix.org/software/antivirus.html ______________________________________________________________________ Please feel free, to offer constructive criticism, as that will help me keep it interesting. I also welcome any submissions about new products, web pages, or articles of interest. All submissions posted in MWN will be given proper credit. "MikesWhatsNews" believes in giving credit where credit is due but at times deadlines and information that is very important to readers we accidentally misspost an item. If you believe something to be miscredited, or you know the author of one of the articles which we have posted as 'unknown', please do let us know so we can correct the information where applicable. Many times in a article you may see a click here for more information, or to go to a link, these often will not work, as the original information, was taken from a page with HTML links. This is when you will want to go to the webpage indicated in the article, ++ ,for 'the rest of the story' ***MfM*** indicates that I am adding my own information to a particular article. `~*~*~*~*~*~` Mike ~It's a good day if I learned something new. You can read a sample of my newsletter on my web page http://www.mwn.ca My virus pages ~ http://virusinfo.hackfix.org mytech@xxxxxxxxxxx ~*~*~*~*~ Was this forwarded to you? Want to subscribe? Send an email to mikeswhatsnews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe. For a complete list of email commands for our list send an email to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with a subject line of "info mikeswhatsnews" without the quotes. If you wish to unsubscribe from our list send an email to mikeswhatsnews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe To contact the list moderators send an email to mikeswhatsnews-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ~*~*~*~*~