Category: Install

Cricket USB UM100 Broadband Wireless Modem Review.

Paul6 Replies

The UM100c is No Longer Available, Please check out the Cricket [intlink id=”3059″ type=”post”]A600 Modem Review[/intlink] Or the [intlink id=”4523″ type=”post”]UM185 Broadband modem[/intlink]. The UM185 modem might be a replacement to the UM100.

After a full week of playing around with this USB wireless, I wanted to talk about it. So let’s break it down into pieces.

  1. [ad#text-broadband1]

  2. Installation —  The installation of the USB was not to difficult.  I did have to do some more steps than this:  Install the Software, then hooked up the USB device to the USB port.

  3. Manual Activated the Broadband —  For some reason in my area they had several people have problems with the broadband activation.  So I had to activate it manually!!

After that all went well, I was on the internet just a cruising along.  I did however wonder why I was getting such a slow response speed.  When I went traveling I thought I would share some of my local results with you to better show you my speed.  All these test were done at

my speed test around town

Please see an updated post on how to get even more speed from the broad band modem.
This speed is not the true speed for the broad band modem.

The Percentages over the results are showing you just what my signal strength was when I was doing the test.  Two of the 4 were traveling on the highway and the other two were stationary.  I also know that my speed will vary along with signal strength, I know I have to be a mile or less from a tower to get 100%.

*Update* 12/21/08

[ad#cricket-1]In my other post I talk about why I didn’t get the speed I expected, but after I did the activation I went to normal Mobile Broadband speeds.   I also now have been using the USB Modem for my main internet without any or much problems.   I know I can’t play any major online games but I can at least have the internet with me were ever  I go.   As long as you stay in the coverage area, you should be in good shape.  .  Like I Said I’ve used it in my area for over a 1 month and with the small little problem, the speed has been really dependable and I haven’t had any major issue with connectivity. I’ve been using this modem as my main internet and have not seen any major internet and have not seen any of the cap come my way.   I think they won’t mind to much as long as you don’t ABUSE the internet, for example don’t use it for bittorrent downloads and you should be fine!!

Update 12/24/2008
I also did travel with my laptop to another city, and I got to say it was really good and how it did when I went from one city to another. Check out the report here.
According to some post and forum talks around the the internet they are talking about the soft cap of 5 Gigabytes but that seems to not be so important right now.   After all, they have to make money some how.   I will update as necessary when I find anything else out.

update 1/01/09

I also did a video and uploaded it to youtube using the broadband connection. I had no problem uploading this video to Youtube. I’ve embedded it in this web page. See it on the bottom:

I also bought the [intlink id=”3059″ type=”post”]A600 Cricket modem[/intlink] and I absolutely love this modem because of the things you can do with it.

How to disable autorun the easy way!!!

Paul

I read a report from Cnet about USB devices spreading Virus and I will quote:

The bad guys are intentionally developing new flavors of malware designed to propagate through USB devices,” said Gunter Ollmann, chief security strategist for IBM’s ISS security division. “They are today’s floppy drives.”

[ad#ad2-right]An infected computer can spread a virus to a clean USB thumb drive that is inserted. That USB drive will then be spreading the virus onto other computers if the operating system on those machines has an AutoRun-type feature enabled. The AutoRun function in Windows launches installers and other programs automatically when a flash drive or CD is inserted. The Mac has an equivalent function, according to Ollmann.

[Via Cnet]

In order to disable “autorun“, which in Vista is called Autoplay. In order to disable Autoplay from starting when you insert media into your computer here is how you do it:

You will need to be Logged in as Administrator before this can be done:

Next click start and type “Autoplay” without quotes. It will bring up a screen but all you have to worry about is this:

Vista autorun

You will need to make sure there  is no check mark for “Use AutoPlay for all media and Devices”.   Click save and close.

[ad#ad2-left]Once that is done, you will have no more Autoruns from USB devices.  If you want to disable Autorun in XP, I’d suggest reading some of these articles for XP.

These are just a few and are really nice to articles but there are others out there that might be more to your liking.  I suggest searching Google for them.   I hope this helps you out!!!

A good free VPN Client — OpenVPN & more

Paul

I’ve been doing some research on what might be good to use in case, I was away from my home network.  I was thinking how safe am I at Starbucks or other places that I might doing my web.  So I did a little looking around to see which one I liked and I came to the conclusions that only one I need right now is:

openvpn

The nice thing about this was the simple installation of the software and how easy it was to set it up. This service is in beta but seems to be really well done with regards to the end users. When you install this software and want to connect it uses the OpenVPN software with there configurations. OpenVPN, is a open sourced SSL VPN solution and is free to use. The way this this free is of Ad Supported banners. Now it is cheaper than paying monthly for a VPN service. The ones I’ve found so far are these few:

  • OpenVPN (FREE)(*advertisement)(Linux, and Windows)

  • Always VPN (Prepay) (5 GB to 80 GB limit) (Linux, Mac and Windows)*Out of Beta

  • Hotspot Shield (FREE) (*advertisement) (Windows) (3 gig Cap)

  • WiTopia (40$/ Year) (Mac, Linux, and Windows)

[ad]There is of course others out that but these are just a few that I saw that looks like the cheapest there is.  Others I’ve seen cost 40 to 50 dollars a month.   If you have any other ones that are free or cheap let me know.  I don’t think we need to pay a lot just to have security on an open network. I’m certain that they’re more out there but will keep looking for more later on. I did my initial research and will come back and find more.

*Update Feb 8, 2009*

As of recent a friend emailed me saying telling me to check the site out again and I did.  Not sure when they went out of Beta because I’ve not been using Always VPN lately due to my Broadband Cricket Prepay Internet.  I just checked and yes they are charging here’s the break down:

  • 5GB – USD 8.50

  • 10GB – USD 15.00

  • 20GB – USD 26.00

  • 40GB – USD 33.00

  • 80GB – USD 47.00

So I must ask why they didn’t just keep the 5 GB limit with the Advertising, I do not know but  I did want to let people know that it is no longer free and no longer in Beta.  I went from Always to OpenVPN which still works despite the fact they are using Always VPN back client.   It’s open source so it will probably change to something else sooner or later.   If you see it changes let me know, I will update more when I find out more!!

Antivirus Professional 2008 uses Scare tactics

Paul

[ad#ad2-right-1]

We came across a rogue today called Antivirus Professional 2008 that uses GeoIP Lookup as part of its scare tactics. This site uses Flash and script to create the effect of an online scan, that then attempts to push an installer at the visitor. The NoScript extension for Mozilla Firefox is an excellent way to mitigate against this kind of garbage.

[Via F-secure]

It seems that there is a site out there, that seems to be trying to scare you into downloading there software. If you have any questions about this site please feel free to check out what I’ve found out:

Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS INC
Contact: 1.3027224217
Website: http://www.estdomains.com
Domain Name: ANTIVIRUS-ONLINE-SCANNER.COM
Registrant:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Creation Date: 07-Jun-2008
Expiration Date: 07-Jun-2009
Domain servers in listed order:
ns2.antivirus-online-scanner.com
ns1.antivirus-online-scanner.com
Administrative Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Technical Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Billing Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732


[ad#ad2-right]Now as you can see this site is located in Russia, and if that’s the case it is probably some virus itself to take control of your system to do what they want with it. So you best advice is if you think you have a virus then check out my recommendations these are all free to download and try. Unlike this site, they are legitimate and actually do what they promise.  If you want to email them you can but It don’t think it will help.

*UPDATE on that Website*

According to F-secure that site is now Suspended.  Great job guys.  We are now fighting these people even better than I’d thought.

Avg detected Trojan Horse Generic 12.htc?

Paul2 Replies

Just got a warning from AVG about, trojan horse generic 12.HTC, haven’t heard of it, anyone out there hear if this one? apparently it infects explore.exe, and after months of explore.exe crashing I’d say it’s a legit virus.

[Via Answer Bag]

Some tricks and tips to remove this little virus is quite simple. It is embedded in your system so how do you remove this threat? Easy follow these steps and you will have a better chance of getting rid of the virus:

  1. Find out all you can on the virus — Finding out the extent of where the virus lays is really a good idea.  Just because you found one place doesn’t mean it isn’t also hiding some other place.  Some good ways to figure out where it might be is to download Hijackthis and Then onces you download it and install.  Run it, and when you get the LOG file you will want to go to HijackThis Log Analysis Site 1 and HijackThis Log Analysis Site 2, and see what it says.

  2. See if you can remove the Hidden Virus — After you find out what the extent of virus may lay.  You will need to download these programs.  Run whichever ones you like to see if you can locate and delete the virus.  You may also consider using one of the several onine services to see what they might suggest or see if they can find this virus.

  3. Check your services and reboot sequence — After you think you’ve gotten rid of the virus, reboot and do a rescan.  Usually the Virus will respawn after you reboot, some of them have a command in the reboot sequence.   You may want to check your reboot sequence, by check with MSCONFIG.  Sometimes it is hidden but if you check through the MSCONFIG for any files that might not need to load.  Also check the services tab and see if there is any services that may not be needed.  The best bet is to google search each service or program that is in there and see if that might fix the problem.

  4. Might be time to re-install Windows — Although this is the hard for people, this can sometimes fix the most challenging virus.  You need not have to loose your important data.  The only thing to remember when you back up is when restore you data after you re-install windows.  Just remember one thing, if it is  an .EXE, .COM, .BAT, and .MSI extensions than that might risk you getting the virus all over again.  Although remember that you will need the other tools I talked about on #2 to keep from getting the virus again.

These are some tricks I use to get rid of a virus and now I’ve shared them with you and now it is up to you do the work.  If you have any tips or tricks to get rid of a virus leave a comment.