Technical Information

eh, one more toy

2007-04-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

a friend of mine mentioned another fun toy, knew about it before, but never really used it to much, primarily because it is very minor items that it actually deals with, but it still is worth a mention here. Have fun....

New Utils

2007-04-21T23:54:00.000-07:00

AVG has some new software, an Anti-Malware, Anti-Rootkit and Anti-Virus software... check it out!

War on Crap-ware

2007-04-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

ok, I am going to post some of the tools that I use when attempting to combat Spyware/Spamware/Malware.

The first tool in my arsenal is CCleaner (or Crap Cleaner). It is a powerful little application that cleans temp files (temp, temporary internet files, History, cookies, typed URL's and a whole load of other stuff). This utility also takes care of the registry by searching for dll's that are registered in the registry but don't exist. Also, it has the ability to show you what is starting at start up and remove them from startup. It is a FREE application, it does request that you donate to keep the cause going, but doesn't require it (I recommend that you do drop them a few bucks if it saves your computers @$$).

The next tool for any good technician is Housecall, excellent utility. The way I usually work it is I load the computer up in Safe mode w/Networking, and then go into this site. This usually takes care of most of my viral infestation calls. Pros are that it is a free to use service that works well, gets most things, and will fix it without charging you anything (i.e. FREE), there is no footprint for a virus to kill. The con is that there are new viruses that are getting smarter. Had a couple of viruses that had gotten into the BHO fields and wouldn't allow me to actually go to housecalls, also, if the client doesn't have DSL, don't even think about it.

Next up is the new program that I found a couple of blogs ago, called Prevx. Only tried it once, but it worked great. I am going to keep this one on the top of my next viral infestation. It isn't free, but it has a 14 day unlimited trial. Means that the software will fix the problems it finds, not just say "you have several problems buy me and I will fix it."

Finally, the next attack vector that I use is BartPE, allows me to gain access to the system in a GUI enviroment and full access to FAT32 and NTFS file formats. catch22 is that most applications will not work, so you had better have a good understanding of what files are infested and how to delete them, now if you actually have the money, my recommendation is to pop over to Avast and purchase Avast for BartPE. Nice little fully configured and updatable computer support system.

New Toys / FYI about VPC

2007-04-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

OOH, something I have to try out... check out this kewl piece of software this looks totally awsome! I plan on downloading it and trying it out this wednesday. Until then, I am going to drool some more over it.

Also, Just for the record... a Virtual PC Guest will not work if it starts from 2007 and goes back to 2004. Also, when two different VPC's are running on a single host machine, the second running VPC will take over the network connection and not allow the first VPC to be contacted until the second device is shut down.

New Tools on the war against Spyware!

2007-04-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

I have a new tool in the war with Spyware, it is called Prevx, it seems that I nasty Spyware app on my system called nnnopop.dll. I tried to use Ad-Aware to remove it, but it was no use, I couldn't get it to find it. The computer that I was working on had two seperate problems, one was a vundo virus, and the other was that nnnopop.dll that found its way to the System32 directory of windows. I got the prevx to run (yeah I know, but I was desperate, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on that particular file name as you can tell by the search) and checked it out. I was amazed when it allowed me to try the software with cleanup ability. Right away it found the problem and cleaned it up (in Real Mode to, not Safe Mode). As expected, it immediately told me that I had to reboot and when it came back, it was working perfectly. The only thing that I didn't like about it was that it wanted me to give a reason why I was uninstalling it, but it did uninstall with out having to tell it anything.