******** Thread now full, see volume 18 ********
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=23394
In this thread you may ask any computer related question for which you need help, advice, suggestions or whatever.
Usual rules apply,
No motoring related discussion,
No politics,
No Speeding, speed cameras, traffic calming
No arguments or slanging matches
Nothing which I think is not following the spirit of the thread
Nothing that risks the future of this site (please see the small print for details www.honestjohn.co.uk/credits/index.htm )
Any of the above will be deleted. If the thread becomes difficult to maintain it will simply be removed.
There is a wealth of knowledge in here, much of which is not motoring related, but most of which is useful.
This is Volume 17. Previous Volumes will not be deleted.
A list of previous volumes can be found here:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=20892
PLEASE NOTE:
When posting a NEW question, please \"Reply to\" the first message in this thread, i.e. this one. This keeps each question in it\'s own separate segment and stops each new question from getting mixed up in amongst existing questions. Also please remember to change the subject header.
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I am trying to share/use my Epson USB printer connected to my main 'Home' pc when I am using my Laptop. All the stuff I find on google/Microsoft say this is easy when both machines are running XP Pro. IE You set up the printer properties to allow sharing and then 'Add a printer' on the Laptop and then select the networked printer option. However guess what - when it searches no printer is found,. I get the name of the computer with the printer attached but no printer showing. I've mucked about with Workgroups and ensured that File/Print sharing is enabled but whatever I do I cant find the printer - its really frustrating as this is meant to be one of the benefits of a wireless (Belkin) setup. I've got this horrible feeling that I am missing something really simple.........any help would be really appreciated
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The following is based on Windows 98, but I\'m fairly sure XP is similar ...
1. Open the printers folder on the home PC. (Start / Settings / Printers). Check that the icon next to your Epson printer has a miniature hand symbol, showing that the printer is shared. If not, right-click on the printer and set \"Sharing\" properties.
2. Open Network Neighbourhood on the laptop. Double click on the icon for the home computer. You should be able to see the Epson printer following the list of disc drives. If you can\'t, you will not be able to \"Add a printer\" on the laptop until this is sorted out.
3. If (1) and (2) are OK, try telling the software the location of the printer instead of getting the software to search for it. For instance, assume your home computer is called \"Home\" (as shown in Network Neighbourhood) and your Epson is called \"Epson\" (as shown in Network Neighbourhood). Start the \"Add a printer\" wizard and then type \\\\\\\\Home\\\\Epson when it asks for a \"Network Path or Queue Name\", instead of browsing to find the printer.
See if that gets you anywhere.
Ian
PS Late last thought, make sure you are logged onto XP with administrator rights.
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More thoughts.
My Epson 680 printer came with its own setup software, which you are supposed to use instead of the "Add a printer" wizard when installing on the laptop. Have you got the Epson setup program? Can you download a copy from Epson's web site? www.epson.co.uk/support/download/index.htm
Although you haven't got to this point yet ... my printer also came with Epson Status Monitor software. This works well on the "Home" computer, but caused grief when installed on the laptop - the status monitor can't monitor the status of a remote printer properly. I recommend you don't install Status Monitor on the laptop.
Ian
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Dear All,
I use Microsoft Word for invoicing amongst other things. To produce an invoice I open the previous one in the list and then \'save as\' Problem now is that as soon as I go \'save as\' the blue bar starts flashing and it all locks. The only way out then is ctrl alt del and then end task. It is driving me mad. Any ideas please.
Regards.
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Does it do this every time ?
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Does it do this every time ?
Mostly.........However I just picked out any invoice from a previous year folder. Opened it, saved as and then moved it to this current year folder. Opened it, saved as, no prob, done my work on it, saved as again and followed this process catching up on invoicing for 4 goes, all ok. Had to take a break and closed everything down. You guessed it. Went back in current year and flashing blue bar again. Tried the fix again from a previous year folder and same prob. It is driving me nuts. Got Norton, ad aware and zone alarm.
Regards. M.
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I presume you mean the header bar up the top ?
That normally means you have tried to do something the system simply can't do at that moment, although at other times it may be able to.
Are you running out of diskspace ?
Do you have an enourmous amount of files ?
Do you have some level of security set in word (password protection for example) ?
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I presume you mean the header bar up the top ? That normally means you have tried to do something the system simply can\'t do at that moment, although at other times it may be able to. Are you running out of diskspace ? Do you have an enourmous amount of files ? Do you have some level of security set in word (password protection for example) ?
Header bar yes. 24Gb free! I cannot imagine too many files at all. No level of security in Word, (as far as I know The guy who deals with my comp probs has seen this very rarely and it is driving him nuts as well.
Reg\'s.
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I can make this happen, but in very limited circumstances: when working with Word document which is an attachment to an e-mail; it's the act of making the change and then, say, asking for a print that causes it to lock up and flash the top bar. Ctrl/Alr/del fixes it after a few shots.
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Do you happen to use Norton Anti-virus / Internet Security?
I believe theres a setting in this product that can in some circumstances cause the type of problems you have described. It's under the miscellaneus settings and it's called "office compatibility plug in"
Have a look on the symantec website for a full description as I cant remember all the details!
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Yes. Spot-on. Many thanks
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Do you happen to use Norton Anti-virus / Internet Security? I believe theres a setting in this product that can in some circumstances cause the type of problems you have described. It's under the miscellaneus settings and it's called "office compatibility plug in" Have a look on the symantec website for a full description as I cant remember all the details!
Dear Sir,
Do you uncheck 'enable office plug in'? or what.
Regards.
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Warning
They are reporting, according to the papers, across the waters east and west a new rampant virus - \"Scob\" which is after Credit Card details and Passwords.
If you do a search for the files
kk32.dll
Surf.dat
and you get a trace then you have it.
As yet no MS patch to stop. Don\'t know if AV people have as yet produced an innoculation.
Forewarned is forearmed.
(Source - Straits Times,Singapore)
DVD
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According to LBC yesterday advice was to disable java in IE security.untill a patch made?.
Was mech1
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Some info for those who may want to know more:
www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/jsscoba.html
However remember, for instance, that keeping anti-virus and SpyBot/Spyware utilities updated regularly, adding SpywareBlaster if not already installed, permanently disabling the Preview Pane in Outlook Express and not visiting dubious websites, then the risk of potential suffering from unwanted nasties is drastically reduced.
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According to the Washington Post the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (funded by the Department of Homeland Security) is recommending that people avoid using Internet Explorer and choose another browser:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6746-2004J...l
Quote: "CERT recommends that Explorer users consider other browsers that are not affected by the attack, such as Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape and Opera. Mac, Linux and other non-Windows operating systems are immune from this attack. For people who continue to use the Internet Explorer, CERT and Microsoft recommend setting the browser's security settings to "high," but that can impair some browsing functions."
One reason why IE is so vulnerable is that it operates at a deep level in the Windows system. No other operating systems are exposed to the outside world to such an extent.
Incidentally there are other flaws in IE that remain unpatched.
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dvd:
thanks for the warning.
but i am not sure why panic is being spread by the media over this.
having searched out details, it seems that the attack is mainly on iis web servers and the solution is
partly in the hands of server administrators making sure their servers are protected, and
partly in hands of users by making sure they have latest anti-virus updates.
www.microsoft.com/security/incident/download_ject....x
"Microsoft teams are investigating a report of a security issue known as Download.Ject affecting customers using Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0 (IIS) and Microsoft Internet Explorer, components of Windows. (Download.Ject is also known as: JS.Scob.Trojan, Scob, and JS.Toofeer.)
Important Customers who have deployed Windows XP Service Pack 2 RC2 are not at risk.
Reports indicate that Web servers running Windows 2000 Server and IIS that have not applied update 835732, which was addressed by Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011, are possibly being compromised and being used to attempt to infect users of Internet Explorer with malicious code."
and isc.sans.org/
"We would like to remind all users that even thought the main issue is over, the same exploit is continuing to be used by web sites out there for malicious purposes. Practically all of the major antivirus services have signatures for this exploit, which is also known as JS.Scob.Trojan, Scob, and JS.Toofeer. "
and vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_126241.htm
"Trojans do not self-replicate. They are spread manually, often under the premise that the executable is something beneficial. Distribution channels include IRC, peer-to-peer networks, newsgroup postings, etc.
This particular trojan is delivered upon visiting a malicious webpage or via mail. "
tip: install netscape/mozilla as a backup to use if internet-explorer should get attacked.
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postscript:
if you are anti-microsoft, and maybe even if your are pro-ms, you may be sceptical about the following but that is what they say;
www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/jun04/0625d...p
" ... On Thursday, June 24, Microsoft responded to reports that some enterprise customers running IIS 5.0 (Internet Information Services), a component of Windows 2000 Server, were being targeted by malicious code, known as Download.Ject. More information is available at: www.microsoft.com/downloadject.
Working with customers and partners worldwide, Microsoft is unaware of any widespread customer impact based on Download.Ject. Moreover, Internet service providers and law enforcement, working together with Microsoft, identified the origination point of the attack in Russia and shut it down on Thursday, June 24.
Microsoft has established with its partners that this attack is not a "worm" or virus-in other words, this attack is a targeted manual attack by individuals or entities towards a specific server. ..."
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Just a quick reminder that when you want to post a new question you should reply to Dave's post at the head of this thread and change the subject header so it is relevant to your query. This means that each new question has its own subthread and makes it a lot easier to follow/locate responses.
Luckily I caught you early and it's only taken a couple of minutes to fix this time!
tut-tut.....
No Dosh
Backroom Moderator
mailto:moderators@honestjohn.co.uk
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That's news to me - perhaps worth adding this info into the thread header?
Lee.
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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That's news to me - perhaps worth adding this info into the thread header?
It has been mentioned several times:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=19...8
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=21...9
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=19...1
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=19...3
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=21...3
Good suggestion about adding it to the thread header. I've now added here, and also in the IHAQ thread, but I wonder how many people will actually bother reading it? Tell you what, I'll add it in bold to *hopefully* make it stand out.
DD.
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Thanks DD,
I've not really been around regularly enough to see everything that gets posted. I never use the threaded view but might change back now as the format you suggest works really well on these question threads.
Cheers,
Lee.
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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Ive just placed an order with PC World for a "Re-conditioned as-new PC" which appears a good deal - 2.6 GHz,256 Mb, CD-RW, 80Gb drive for £329. The only concern I have is with the OS - its XP supplied pre-loaded, with a "recovery disk".
Ive since found out that XP is held on a hidden partition and the recovery disk pulls files as required, in the event of re-build being needed.
Not having the original software disk is something Im starting to feel uncomfortable with. PC World seem to do this for many of their PCs but can any tell me if this is likely to cause me any problems or leave me disadvantaged. How do I recover XP if the hard drive fails outside warranty?
Thanks
Andy
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My inclination would be - get hold of a W98SE cd, format the HD and install that.
Stress 'MY inclination' though.
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I currently run 98SE and its more than adequate for my needs, and I will probably end up running both OSs.
But having paid for XP, Id like to know what the future holds if I decide to use it as my main OS.
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But having paid for XP, Id like to know what the future holds if I decide to use it as my main OS.
It probably ain't pretty unless you install a firewall and antivirus software before you connect the machine to the Internet. Then go straight to MS updates and download everything "critical".
**Warning, Linux Plug Follows**
Personally I'd put one of the more user-friendly Linuxes on there. They will repartition the disk leaving XP on there and you can choose at boot up which to go for. Try Mandrake Linux, Mepis Linux, Xandros or PCLinuxOS. Any of those will install automatically in considerably less than an hour and include everything, from graphics software to office suites, a high quality firewall, several web browsers, and all for free (apart from Xandros). Mepis and PCLinuxOS will run from the CD without installing so you can test them first. Xandros will cost you $90 but for that you also get the ability to run MS Word and other MS software, including Internet Explorer. A good site to find out more and for links to download is www.distrowatch.com
**Linux Plug Over**
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**Warning Linux dig on**
Dont even consider Linux if you are into playing the latest greatest games DESPITE what anyone will tell you about windows emulators.
** Linux dig off**
If you aint game playing and just use your PC for Browsing, office type tasks, and dont mind digging around in linux internals now and again, and scouring various places for drivers, and like doing research before you buy and install hardware or network upgrades then yup go ahead and use Linux. Its free, its quick and (at the moment tho that will change) relatively safe.
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Latest and Greatest Games? That's why you leave XP on another partition. Automatically. With just one reboot for the whole process. In half an hour. I've never had to install a Linux driver manually in the year or so that I've been using Linux for everything (I started from scratch last March). I use the graphical package manager to install updates, new software and so on, just like Windows. The main problem with Linux these days is deciding which "distro" you like best and changing the way you think about computers, but hard it ain't.
>relatively safe.
As in 1935 Morris Minor versus Renault Laguna II?
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>relatively safe.
Well look at it this way. I happen to know that most of the *very* serious hacks that have occured (so serious you dont read about them becuase they -ahem- never happened) have happened on various flavours of UNIX (read linux).
Everyone in the business knows the Linux kernal has security holes,
but fortunately as most of the widespread worms, trojans, viruses et al rampant in the windows environment are written by low skilled "script kiddies" using graphical toolkits that are windows specific
then Linux is relatively untouched.
When Linux (and i say when rather than if because it will come) is as widespread on the desktop then you can expect to have just as many scares as we do now. Because as they say - it will be worth it.
So call it a 1935 minor compared to a rover 100
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>relatively safe. Well look at it this way. I happen to know that most of the *very* serious hacks that have occured (so serious you dont read about them becuase they -ahem- never happened) have happened on various flavours of UNIX (read linux).
You don't have to look very hard to know that--and of course there are holes in Linux--but then *nix does most of the heavy lifting and the prizes are bigger so it's not surprising. Which serious hacker wouldn't like to "own" one of the banks, for instance (to mention just one that never happened)? Home computers are small fry by comparison. You know as well as I do that the Windows/*nix security debate is far from settled one way or the other. Funny though how Apache (read Linux) servers attract fewer hacks than MS IIS installs, given Apache has much greater market share. I'm occasionally at the reporting end of the IT food chain and I'll just have to disagree with you about the inherently better security model of Linux. And I'll take the Rover 100 thanks, if that's the choice.
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If you're concerned about losing the HD and thus the recovery data, find an original disk from, for example, eBay. If you've got an XP licence already, seems to me that this should be OK. Be careful not to pay for another licence though - the disk and the licence are separate things. Make sure you've got the licence key with the PC.
I'd be very hesitant to revert to 98 - it's a very old operating system now. XP, for all it's faults, does the job pretty well and with regular updates very important quite stable too.
Couldn't recommend Linux either, not as user friendly as Windows and requires (still) a higher degree of technical knowledge to keep happy.
Best of luck,
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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C,
thanks for the clear response - just what I needed to hear. Apparently the licence number is attached the case, and Im sure I can find a copy of XP.
Andy
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Glad to be of assistance!
:-)
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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>>Ive since found out that XP is held on a hidden partition and the recovery disk pulls files as required, in the event of re-build being needed.
Dont know where you got that from.recovery disc is exactly that.ie if you replace H/drive it can be partitioned and formated from the recovery disc.then XP reinstalled.as with most preinstalled os`s you will get a driver disc seperate to install drivers needed for your machine.
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Was mech1
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Some years ago a friend had a Tiny system which had the recovery files on a hidden partition on the system disk. The system crashed and he had to go to recovery. Guess what, while recovering the system crashed again and the recovery partition got knackered too. (It was a broken CPU fan causing the crashes).
Always try to get the full media if you can. XP disks might not be so easy to come by.
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In other words the cpu burnt out.recovery files arent hidden on disc/hard drive.if that was the case why have a reload disc.point I tried to make was if all data and XP/ME/98 was lost.recovery/reload disc will restore after repairs done.that is the idea of it.I have done more reloads due to messing around with pc settings than a lot have.although 1 thing I am uncertain about is the ghost.I have been told its a way of fooling the bios into thinking hard drive is smaller than it is enabling the H/Drive to work on system.I may be wrong here?
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Was mech1
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The cpu was actually OK, just overheating and stopping. A new fan cured it.
It had stopped in such a way that it had corrupted system files, and the system wouldn't work properly, so to my friend, recovery seemed the best option. He didn't know he had a problem with the fan and it was during recovery that it went again, destroying the recovery partition too.
The "out of the factory image" was not on CD, it was on a hidden partition of the hard drive which was not normally visible when in Windows 9?. You booted with their special recovery diskette which then used a product like Ghost (but it wasn't Ghost) to recover the main partition from the hidden one. (Then you had to load some additional device drivers from diskettes and CDs).
Ghost may be able to do cunning things, but I think this was much easier. It simply had a second partition, which would have appeared as a disk in Wondows, but had the Hidden attribute set, so didn't appear.
And I too have recovered more PCs than most. So many that I have often considered starting a business fixing people's home computers. The one which made me smile most was a friend who called me about an undesirable site he'd visited which had plonked "evidence" all over the place - icons on desktop, items in menus, and the sound of sheer panic in friend's voice when I said I couldn't do anything about it, and he thought his wife would find out... Actually it was fixed over the phone in about 3 minutes :-)
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Sorry but I dont think so.the out of factory image is on the recovery disc.not on the drive.though it is when first buying having said that its compressed.which I think is where the prob lies.visiting a site and curing I dont think relevant to prob.windows is decompressed during install.so I doubt probs previous I doubt any one will have a prob.reload disc is as I said before.I could understand probs if disc not supplied.but it is
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Was mech1
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Steve - I know what I saw! I used to be a senior tech and I understand these things!
This was some years ago. Maybe they don't do it any more. I know many companies who provide a separate disk. But on this one there was no means of recovery other than the factory image on a hidden partition of the hard drive.
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One example would be that HP computers being sold from Comet 6 - 9 months ago contain all the recovery programs in a hidden partition. The CD supplied merely allows access to and booting from that partition.
The argument being that 99.99% of all restores are required for software, data or config issues rather than disk failure.
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Not a question, but a tip. I've been using Firefox (and before that Firebird) for about a year now and I haven't come across this before. Apologies if you already know about this. Apparently you can use the address bar of the browser to search any database on the net. Here's how:
Go to the search page of the site you want to search, then use the site's search facility to search for something. Doesn't matter what. Bookmark the results page then click on Bookmarks and scroll to the bookmark you just made. Right click on it and select "Properties". In the location box change the search terms you entered to "%s" without the quotation marks and leave everything else as is. Then add a keyword in the relevant box and close the properties dialogue. When you ant to search that database you just type the keyword in the address bar, followed by whatever you want to search for.
Example: On the forum search in this site I type Bogush (for example), but it can be anything). I then bookmark the results, go to the bookmark properties and delete the word Bogush from the location box and replace it with "%s". I add HJ to the keyword box and close the properties dialogue. Now whenever I need to search the forum (say for Computer Related Questions) I just type in the address bar of Firefox: HJ "Computer Related Questions" and it takes me to the results.
You can do this with any site you regularly search; imdb, Amazon, Microsoft, Sophos Antivirus, anything.
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Help
www.tinyurl.com/Me10
is an area that I use as a source of reference from time to time.
Now I can download the marked Word file perfectly but when I try to do the same in relation to the others marked PDF files all I get is small square boxes and greek gibberish letters.
Have Acrobat Reader 4 installed so why?
DVD
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Don't know for sure, but Acrobat Reader is now on version 6, so maybe you could try that.
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Thanks Chris....
Back in business after downloading basic 6.1. as you mentioned.
Would appear the version 4 that I had went walkabouts, how I don't know.
DVD
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I've just installed Webroot "SpySweeper" which I hope, in view of my computer illiteracy, was a wise decision.
It seems OK in that it identifies potentially harmful cookies that have invaded my computer uninvited and allows me to delete them. And then only after I have initiated a sweep.
But isn't this only part of the story?
Surely, unless I put a permanent block on these cookies aren't they just likely to re-invade my computer at a later date? I've managed to ferret out the website names of some of the offending cookies (usually with the help of a Google search) and put these into my "Always Block" list, but my method of identification clearly leaves something to be desired. Shouldn't this identification be part of the SpySweeper programme, and if not, how can I consistently achieve this identification?
(Please excuse any incorrect terminology. I may be old but that doesn't make me computer-literate ~ probably the reverse in fact!)
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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I use Lavasoft Adaware which I would guess is a similar program. Certainly, in my experience, there is no real way of stopping these cookies appearing on your machine. I make a point of sweeping for them every week or two, after getting an update from Lavasoft. The cookies themselves don't affect your PC's performance, but it's just the principle of the thing that irks me.
Thing is, these cookies are only part of the spyware problem. It's certainly possible that you will have other bits of spyware on your machine. I have found that sites offering services such as lyrics for pop-songs and emoticons/fonts/graphics will try to install spyware executables on your machine. These are much worse and can affect your computer's performance as well as popping up adverts when you don't want them and redirecting you to their sites.
Trouble is, the internet is a global thing, and as much as you make this sort of thing illegal in one country, there will always be a country somewhere that these guys can operate from.
Anyway, the following list should keep most spyware off your machine:
(1) Use a virus scanner. Update and scan regularly.
(2) Use a spyware scanner. Update and scan regularly.
(3) Set your browser to a high security level, only installing from the internet if you have said it's OK.
(4) Use a firewall. Zonealarm (Zonelabs) I have found to be pretty good... and free for home use.
I do this and still end up with spyware from time to time. It's not something you can really avoid.
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Is it possible to prevent Windows from installing and running these things without asking you? If it is you should do it. The only way I can think of doing it (in XP anyway) is not logging in with administrator rights all the time, but I know that makes the system less convenient to use.
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With IE6 at least, under 'privacy' settings you can configure it to block all cookies, which should help.
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I'd be lying if I said I knew how these things worked... but there are a number of different ways that they can infect your machine. Of all these, the cookies are the least sinister.
I don't know how you can make a computer spyware-proof... well, not without making it effectively useless. You can stop cookies being written, but it makes surfing the web a bit of a pain. You'd be surprised how much you rely on legitimate cookies to make your surfing easier. Just try deleting all your cookies and see how much of a pain it is.
Similarly, the only way you can stop these things from writing to the registry is (to the best of my knowledge) to lock your registry, preventing anything from writing to it. This means that no other applications can write to it either, and you won't take long to find out what an annoyance that is. Well, not so much an annoyance. More crippling, really.
Then there are executables which lurk on your machine, sometimes stand-alone, sometimes as part of other applications (usually free downloaded services like file-sharing managers and that sort of thing). Gator is a good example of these. They sit and gather data about all your surfing habits and send them to a central server. You can spot these things being installed because they pop a window like:
-------------------------------------------
Do you want to install:
NothingDodgyHere.exe
After accepting the terms of our licensing
considions blah blah yackedy schmackedy....
[]Always trust content from dodgy geezers
[Yes] [No]
-------------------------------------------
Although, often when you click no they will keep trying to install. And whether you see the window, I think, depends on your Internet security settings.
I'm usually quite careful, but I inevitably get spyware from time to time. Just keep running the checks, and do a little research if you find some spyware that can't be removed. The "CoolWebSearch" spyware is a little critter for that.
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Using a browser other than IE will help a lot because browsers such as Mozilla/Mozilla Firefox (and Opera?) don't allow anything to be downloaded unless you specifically say they can--Mozilla has a built-in download manager to help you control anything you download (and see what you've downloaded easily). I stopped using IE a couple of years ago for exactly this reason, about a year before I switched to Linux. The Windows install that I use for iTunes and gaming has no spyware on it other than cookies (I installed a couple of spyware killers to check and they came up with nothing).
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Installing SpywareBlaster (free from www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html and updating regularly) will stop the majority of the nasties getting on your system in the first place.
Also use Search and Destroy 1.3 and AdAware6 (update regularly), plus the free version of AVG (www.grisoft.com) if you haven't got Anti-Virus protection (again update regularly!)
SpamCan61 is partially correct regarding Cookies configuration from Internet Explorer's Tools>Privacy>Advanced tab.
However, you do need cookies - the good ones - so this should be set to Allow First Party Cookies and to either Block or Prompt for Third Party Cookies. You can allow Session cookies.
Then, each time you visit a website, a panel will appear asking whether you wish to allow or block Cookies or permit them access permanently (on known and trusted websites).
It may seem a nuisance to have to keep clicking yes or no, but it saves a lot of unwanted cookies invading your system and having to run S and D/AdAware more often to get rid of them.
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More information on Security Measures in Internet Explorer, including Cookies, is available in Microsoft's comprehensive roundup at:
www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/security/...x
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Logging in as administrator
I know it\'s a pain but if you can use the machine as a User (or Power User) rather than administrator you\'re less exposed to attack.
If you need to install anything, you can right click on the item and use \"Run As\", logging in as Administrator with the correct password.
Bit of a pain I know, but every little helps!
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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les' cargot
i use spybot which has a feature to actively block nasties.
i believe there is a simialr active feature in the paid version of advaware6.
however, as for cookies etc., i use agnitum outpost firewall (which is open source like linux, mozilla and netscape) which allows me to block specific sites from doing specific things.
go to their web site and their forum
www.agnitum.com
www.agnitum.com/support/onlinecomunity.html
to find out whether you would feel confident enough to apply the settings to achieve what you want. you can try their pro version for 30 days to test if the extra features over the free version are necessary for your needs.
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I'm trying to fix red eye on an image using Photoshop CS and am following the instructions in the Help menu to the letter. However when I click and drag over the red area with a black swatch chosen the red eye becomes grey eye, (it seems to be turning the image black and white rather than colour), and not black as I'm expecting. Choosing a colour like yellow or pink works fine but, as you can imagine, that's not quite the effect I'm looking for! Where am I going wrong???
--
If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished
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I'm not familiar with the help file in question, but that sounds like the layer you're working on is in a mode that affects lighter colours more than darker ones (multiply, for example).
My techniques for dealing with redeye are as follows:
simple one:
Make a circular selection around the coloured part of the eye. Remove a circular selection from the centre and trim away any excess selection that's strayed onto the eyelids or lashes, so you're just left with a 'polo' shape covering the natural eye colour. Go to the 'selection' menu and add a feather of 1 pixel. Now go to the 'layers' menu and add a hue/saturation adjustment layer. Because you already had a selection onscreen when you chose this option, you'll effectively get a customised hue/saturation layer occupying and affecting *only* the selection area. You can then doubleclick this layer to bring up the standard adjust hue/saturation box and tweak away to your heart's content. If you wish, you can follow the same technique for the centre of the eye using a brightness/contrast adjustment layer instead to bring the colour back to black and allow you to tweak the contrast to bring out the original reflections.
More complex one:
Make the selection in precisely the same way, but then use the channel mixer to mix in green and blue elements from their respective channels, and to decrease the amount of red in the red channel. This method halps to preserve as much of the natural colour in the image as possible, leading to a more realistic result. This is a bit too tricky to describe here, but the help files should cover it - it's a very useful and underused technique for balancing colours.
Alternatively, you could detail the steps the tutorial is giving you, and I'll try to work out where it's going pear shaped! :)
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I have "a friend" who would like to download music off "unofficial" file sharing sites at work using a private hotmail address and a company computer. Now if this "friend" was to do this would it be him who was liable or his place of work should he be one of the few in a million who was traced?
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I have "a friend" who would like to download music off "unofficial" file sharing sites at work using a private hotmail address and a company computer. Now if this "friend" was to do this would it be him who was liable or his place of work should he be one of the few in a million who was traced?
It would be you. Ahem, er, your "friend" (assuming you - sorry, your friend has to log on to the PC at work with a unique ID as this will allow said company to point the finger and wave the IT user guidelines at the miscreant).
Mark will probably be able to give you chapter and (non-copyrighted) verse.
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Assuming that such downloads were allowed (correct ports open), I'd be very surprised if any decent IT department doesn't keep logs of all internet activity.
A fish around them will happily point the finger to the muppet who thought they could get away with this sort of thing at work.
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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Perhaps I was being a bit obscure. Who would be sued - the company or the individual?
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I think you've been given a clue as to the answer, but just to be more explicit: You. On two counts.
1. By the copyright holders or their representatives.
2. By the company whose bandwidth you stole, and whose security you compromised.
Another scenario is that the company is sued, but then hammers you in turn. Everything is recorded and logged. But being sued is the least of your worries. If you damage someone's business and get caught you can bet they will keep coming after you until you wish you'd never heard of illegal music downloading sites based in Russia. You will be made a scapegoat and you won't win, so just forget it. Do your downloading at home and face the consequences like a man.
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Sorry I skim reaqd ND's answer which was quite clear.
ChrisR you're quite unequivocal and I'm not disputing what you say but interested to know on what basis a copyright owner could keep coming after someone for the theft of something that can be bought quite legally on-line for a tenner, surely some rule of proportionality applies?
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copyright owner couldkeep coming after someone for the theft of something that can be bought quite legally on-line for a tenner, surely some rule of proportionality applies?
You answer your own question with the words "theft" and "can be bought quite legally." Try stealing CDs from a Virgin Megastore and see what happens. In the USA people are being prosecuted for just this crime. If the company offering the downloads is in a place that makes it difficult to close down, they will hit the customers to destroy the business.
But in fact what I meant was that the company whose network you use to download the illegal content could come after you if you damage their business either through a security breach (illegal download sites are hardly likely to care about your online welfare), or through damage to their reputation. Something similar happen to a member of my family twenty years ago and it wasn't pretty. He was kept in bankruptcy for over a decade and his very promising career was finished--courts were not directly involved. Not worth it for something that can be downloaded legally for a tenner, right?
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>>Try stealing CDs from a Virgin Megastore and see what happens.<<
Well nothing is the true answer assuming it ever got to the magistrate's court who may impose a fine or the county court if the store took a civil action, you're not going to get sent to the colonies! Does anyone know what sentences have been handed out thus far in this country for this crime? I'm *not* arguing the morality of it - hence being clear about it being theft and a crime.
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Of course music downloaders tend not to jsut take one album. So maybe it would be better to advise stealing 400 CDs from Virgin Megastore and see what happens.
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I'm not sure, but I think it would be;
1) the individual without doubt
2) the company if they could not reasonably show that they did not know it was happening, could not reasonably have been expected to know it was happening and did not take steps to stop it as soon as they did know. They would probably also have to show that their staff were aware that such behaviour was, according to published Ps&Ps, unacceptable and inappropriate usage.
Certainly this would be the case with porn.
And whilst you would still have a career direction, I don't think it would be up.
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this is a timely warning to anyone tempted to visit "dodgy" download sites.
merijn, the author of anti-hijack sofware, is giving up his fight against the hijacker known as coolwebsearch. according to the register, "He has tracked CWS and its modifications ever since it first appeared last summer, claiming that it is "the most complex, invisible and devious hijacker" ever programmed. He is not joking: We run afoul of CWS not too long ago and the only way to remove the sucker was to replace the entire Windows Registry with a previous version."
see www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/
and www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/29/cws_shredder/
to quote merijn:
"Q. When will CWShredder be updated again?
A. It won't be again, probably. I have a few bugs to fix, but after that there's not much left to do - I simply do not have the tools to remove the latest variants, they are too agressive or complicated to allow automated removal by CWShredder. "
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this is a timely warning to anyone tempted to visit "dodgy" download sites. merijn, the author of anti-hijack sofware, is giving up his fight against the hijacker known as coolwebsearch. according to the register, "He has tracked CWS and its modifications ever since it first appeared last summer, claiming that it is "the most complex, invisible and devious hijacker" ever programmed. He is not joking: We run afoul of CWS not too long ago and the only way to remove the sucker was to replace the entire Windows Registry with a previous version." see www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/ and www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/29/cws_shredder/ to quote merijn: "Q. When will CWShredder be updated again? A. It won't be again, probably. I have a few bugs to fix, but after that there's not much left to do - I simply do not have the tools to remove the latest variants, they are too agressive or complicated to allow automated removal by CWShredder. "
Following a visit to a certain website, Webroot SpySweeper now always finds adware which it refers to as CWS_xplugin. What is the significance of this. Is it anything to be sufficiently concerned about to warrant me not visiting the aforementioned website? In layman's language please!
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Following a visit to a certain website, Webroot SpySweeper now always finds adware which it refers to as CWS_xplugin. What is the significance of this. Is it ....
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lescargot -
remember the warning about hiv-aids and safe-practices? i recommend that people follow the same logic when connecting to the ether via their pc!
as for your specific query, look up -
www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html#xpl...n
and then install cwshredder from
www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
& run cwshredder to fix the blighter.
how did you get infected? read
www.spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=169&sid=d8f...5
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It seems that my analysis of how/when CWS_xplugin appears on my computer was flawed. I can delete it using Webroot Spy Sweeper, but it re-appears as soon as I connect to the internet. In other words, I don?t need to visit a website for it to appear. Is this what I should expect?
More importantly, what harm will it do, either to my computer or to me personally?
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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lescargot:
More importantly, what harm will it do, either to my computer or to me personally?
i have no knowledge of how spysweeper works and whether it can deal with cws attacks.
all i can say to you is to visit the linkd i posted and use the expert forums linked from there to get help.
as to your question what harm it will do - how about considering this as a possibility - imagine that your computer-hijacker misdirects you to a web site which has illegal photos on it.
does the fact that those jpegs/jpgs are displayed on your screen make you liable to be charged with a criminal act?
and if proved guilty, at best would you get away with just a caution and your name on the sex-offenders register! ?
if that is not motivation enough to learn more about computers and using the internet safely, i don't know what is?
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>>does the fact that those jpegs/jpgs are displayed on your screen
Lets not spread any hysteria that a hijack will route you to something illegal and that you will then be prosecuted - even porn laws require a level of intent.
None of which should take away from the importance of protecting your PC.
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Lets not spread any hysteria that a hijack will route you to something illegal and that you will then be prosecuted - even porn laws require a level of intent.
Quite. Far more worrying is that some hijackers can trace keystrokes and steal your passwords/bank details. There is a current flaw in IE that allows just that (reported by SANS this week) and makes it possible to read keystrokes before they are encrypted whenever you visit a banking website, many of which require IE to work.
**Note** This is not the same flaw as the one reported earlier in the week. This one is to do with IE's functionality and is not a bug as such.
isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2004-06-29&isc=9aa38de...1
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Lets not spread any hysteria that a hijack will route you to something illegal and that you will then be prosecuted - even porn laws require a level of intent.
i was posing a question as to the harm that could result.
of course i bow to mark's superior knowledge on this, as i have no idea where these hihjackers will divert you to.
as for level of intent, again i am not an expert and i personaly would not take that risk.
i shall leave it to the individual to take their own decision on how hysterical or paranoid they wish to be.
sources say:
" Section 160 of The Criminal Justice Act of 1988 made the simple possession of indecent photographs of children an offence. This is a Serious Arrestable Offence carrying a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment.
Making an indecent image of a child is a Serious Arrestable Offence carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.
Note: The term "make" includes downloading images from the Internet.
Note (b) In Longmuir v. H.M.A. 2000 S.C.C.R. 447, it was upheld on appeal, that downloading images from the Internet was within Section 52(1)(a) (above). The word "make" covered an activity whereby a computer was used to bring into existence data stored on a computer disk. A person who downloads images is making photographs. Operation of a computer to download electronic signals could be distinguished from mere possession of indecent photographs (where the possessor has not himself been responsible for bringing the material into existence).
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look up merijn cws logs
www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html
just hte next entry after the cws-xplugin is
one for cws-alfasearch and
one for cws-loadbat
guess where these hijacked pages lead to?
porn!
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I have heard tell of cases in which you can install a regular internal hard drive which you then connect to a PC by means of USB or Firewire, thereby creating an external hard drive more cheaply than just buying an external hard drive.
Trouble is, I get my computer peripherals generally from ebuyer.com and can\'t find one on there. I suspect that it\'s because I don\'t know what they\'re called. Can anyone point me directly to one on ebuyer or elsewhere ?
And finally, is it easy to do or should I just buy an external hard drive. Thing is, Aldi have got what looks like a decent internal hard drive quite cheap from tomorrow and this case idea would be a good way of making it into an external hard drive.
Thanks
--
Matthew Kelly
No, not that one.
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You can get external hard drives very cheaply now, but they're not necessarily any better than internal ones. The main practical uses for one are transporting your data around, and the ability to lock the drive up in a cupboard for security - generally you won't have your OS on them, just stored files. They're generally just plug and go nowadays, but USB1 might be a bit too slow to realistically do anyhting with - go for USB2.0 or Firewire, but remember to budget for an interface card if you don't already have the connectors on your PC.
Internal drives are dirt cheap now anyway - I recommend the Western Digital WD800-JB which will give you 80Gb of space, a 7200prm spin speed and 8mb of cache to improve transfer rates. One of these will set you back in the region of £55. I wouldn't recommend touching Fujitsu drives, and I'd personally steer clear of IBM Deskstars (although I know a lot of people get on fine with them).
For both external and internal drives, try the following suppliers:
www.novatech.co.uk
www.scan.co.uk
(note: if using scan, I'd personally recommend choosing a delivery option that doesn't involve Citylink couriers - myself and a surprising number of my customers have had untold problems with them.)
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IBM no longer makes "death"stars. Sold the whole hard disk drive business, lock stock and platter to Fujitsu.
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IBM no longer makes "death"stars. Sold the whole hard disk drive business, lock stock and platter to Fujitsu.
Good thing too. Lovely quiet and speedy drives when they worked, but once you started getting bad sectors, say bye-bye data. Expect one to last about 6 months if you're lucky. I tend to use Maxtor these days.
On a related issue, iomega zip drives went through a bit of a bad patch (not good for a product used to backup your files!). Are they sorted now and are there viable alternatives for prompt and reliable full-system backups?
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We're still getting chronic failures on Zip 250 drives, both internal IDE and external USB - tends to be intermittent, and can quite easily result in data only being half saved and discs becoming wedged in the drive. The external 250s no longer seem to have a panic eject hole either, so you have to force the disc out or pull the glued-on side panels off.
We're now seriously considering moving solely over to CD writers for next term - we have to issue stronger controls over their usage, but with a decent LG writer available for £25 or less and around 3 zip disks worth of storage per CD for 20p instead of £9, it really is becoming a no-brainer.
Zip drives were never much cop for full system backups really htough - we still have a few 2gb SCSI Jaz drives knocking around the workshop in perfect working order, dating from the days when 2gb really *would* backup your entire system :) The only reasonable alternative is a tape drive, or maybe an external hard-drives if you're not too fussed about only having a single backup.
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There are still quite a few left in stock with resellers though, and a surprising amount of these are leftovers from that bad period - if you check the manufacture dates on the label, they sit squarely within that iffy period. A friend of mine had his replaced after a chronic failure 9 months in, and found that the drive they'd sent was made *before* the one he'd returned, and was still from smack bang in the middle of the bad spell.
TBH, I don't think Fujitsu ever entirely recovered from that 'bad silicon' episode - we lost somewhere in the region of three to four to hundred fujis at work over a two year period, and I still have a few left that are showing signs of impending failure. Nowadays I just stick to Western Digital, or sometimes Seagate if the price is good.
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I'm sure that would come as news to Fujitsu, tts actually Hitachi that bought the IBM's Hard Drive department.
I mainly stick to Maxtor as if anything does go wrong they can be replaced within a few days, with Seagate & several other brands it can take weeks if not months to get a replacement. I also tried some ExcelStor drivers recently, they have a 3 year warranty (most drives only have 1 now).
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IBM no longer makes "death"stars. Sold the whole hard disk drive business, lock stock and platter to Fujitsu.
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fujitsu?
are they the same as hitachi?
as far as i know, the new hd's are branded hitachi/ibm.
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just did a search.
rf may owe fujitsu an apology!
www.hitachigst.com
"Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was founded in 2003 and was formed as a result of the strategic combination of IBM and Hitachi?s storage technology businesses. "
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Apology fully granted and documented. I knew it was Hitachi, gawd knows why I wrote Fujitsu.
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IBM's early three-figure gigabyte HDDs suffered premature failure after a fairly short period.
My son bought two for server use and both packed up in quick time.
IBM took a long time to agree to replace both, claiming that they were only intended to be used for a few hours at a time - not very much use in a server.
It was not all that long afterwards that IBM did the linkup with Hitachi.....
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Aha, the city link courier! I have the misfortune of having to use city link when I purchase from ebuyer.
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You can find them at ebuyer and other outlets, but under the title of HDD caddies, from Belkin and Microsal:
www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=724...9
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There are, of course, similar hard drive caddy products from many other manufacturers.
A good place to pick one up cheaply is at a computer fair if one is held conveniently close.
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Not come across this prob before.mouse pointer dissapears at no given time then reappears after several clicks.have been into control panel/mouse/pointers.but the check box is clear for pointer hidden while writing text.I only discovered this morning it was happening.but although its hidden when you click it works.problem is as you cannot see it what have you clicked on if you see what I mean.thanks in advance for any help.
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Was mech1
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Does it disappear in all areas of the screen or just in one area? I am thinking videocard/mem problem here.
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Yes all areas of screen.I`ve had pc for around 2 years now.I do find mice are a pain.didn`t expect a prob with ball less as its just out of warranty.I know they arent expensive was hoping this could be sorted without buying new again.
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Was mech1
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Agreed about the possibility of a video card fault - it's always worth updating the drivers if possible, and also temporarily turning hardware accelleration down to none to see if that helps. If you're running a fairly substantial video card you might also want to check that the fan is still working correctly. I'm assuming that this problem is happening on the windows desktop itself as well as when using apps?
There is also a further possibility - if the mouse is a PS2 one, it's often worth ditching the microsoft drivers completely and using the latest logitech mouseware instead - this will allow you to speed up the PS2 refresh rate by degrees from 50hz up to 200hz, which makes the mouse movement silky smooth. If you use this for a few days, you won't want to go back :)
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I updated video card drivers this morning.hasn`t made any dif.though think monitor is on way out.its at max for brighness/contrast.Mouse is usb conversion ie usb to ps2.I will give that a go.drivers.let you know.thanks
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Was mech1
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Have you checked the configuration of the mouse? Start>Settings>Control Panel>Mouse (double click).
Alternatively, if you installed a mouse driver rather than use the Windows version, go to Program Files and check out the configuration there (this is possible if you bought, say, a wireless keyboard and mouse and installed their drivers)
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