Category: Other

Google Creates the ultimate Search Wiki!!

Paul

Google has started to do let people rate the searches and help find the better articles. Google is calling it Searchwiki. Here is a screen shot:

[ad#ad2-left]You can now help judge and rate search results.   You can also X out the ones that are not right.   I am going to play around with this even more.  It started out on Google Trends and Now people are all wanting to know more about this.   This could help my site even more.   I want to know what others are thinking about this?  Is this Good or can this be good for the spammers?  You decide.

Some other Websites talking about this are:

These are just a few but I wanted to let you see what other websites are talking about this new feature. I do want to hear what you think about all this and what is likely to come later on?

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!!!

You have an undelivered UPS/FEDEX Package. (Virus)

Paul

From what I’ve seen so far. There seems to be a new rash of email going around with the heading that makes it look and feel like either UPS or Fedex. Saying that you have an undelivered package from them and to either print the order confirmation or to click a link. I will say this once, if you get this delete it. Fedex and UPS will never hide the link and tell you have an package waiting in the email. They will leave a note your door. You must ask yourself how Fedex/UPS found out your email address to tell you have a package waiting? They don’t and they won’t, just a fact.

[ad#ad2-right]UPS/FedEx Delivery Failure : Snopes

TROJ_DLOADR.GG and TSPY_ZBOT.NM Trojan, which will Monitor and try to steal your data. The other one is a ZBot and will try to steal you data also. If you need help removing this virus, I’d suggest checking out my other virus article Avg detected Trojan Horse Generic 12.htc?. There are a lot of ways to remove this virus but the first step is never click on any links in your emails. I also wrote about Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! This will help prevent and fix the common virus problems you might have.

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!!