Eradicating Viruses

I just saw this on the news about Facebook accounts getting hacked
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/video?id=6847415

The problem isin't so much the users accounts getting hacked as the malware that is being proliferated as a result of hackers impersonating friends. Malware infections are a serious security threat. If malware infects your computer and then starts transmitting your personal data to some remote web site you could be dealing with bigger problems than dealing with an annoying virus on your computer.

Your best defence is a good offence. Keep your computer and antivirus up to date. But if you do get infected what do you do? In my experience trying to cleanse an infestation can be a long, difficult and not so rewardinig experience.

I know it can be difficult to consider but formatting your hard drive and re-installing your OS will definitely eradicate all malware infestations AND everything else on your PC. Before formatting your hard drive, burn any data you intend to keep to CD or DVD and scan the CDs for viruses before copying any data to an uninfected PC. If the CD comes up clean then it will be safe to copy your data to the uninfected PC. If not you got more work to do to sanitize that data. We use this method to copy data off infected systems because it is the least likely to transfer viruses. Once you have have your OS, software, Virus Scan software, Firewall and anything else you use installed and updated you can restore your data files and you'll be back in business malware free.

Being Proactive instead of Reactive will always save you from many hours or days of frustration. Don't wait until your computer gets infected to do something about it. Create a disaster recovery plan for yourself so when it happens to you, you are ready. When I build my machines, as soon as I have all my software installed and before the machine is deployed I use imaging software like ghost to create a clean baseline image of it so if I come up against malware I can save hours not haveing to reinstall gigs of software. I also have a small backup system running to keep my data safe. In my case I would only need to do the following steps:

  • Re-image the PC
  • install updates
  • restore data

Nobody can escape the possibility of getting a PC infected with malware. In fact I suffered a virus infection few months back. I pulled out my baseline image and had my computer fully back up and running virus free only a couple hours later.

Shutdown or not?

I was asked this question recently...
Evil… for home use, do you think it’s better to log off a PC or shutdown? We finally got a new one and I know we leave them n at work all the time, but not sure what’s best to do at home.
I am an IT Tech and sometimes its hard for us thechie types to step down from the Enterprise level we live at to answer a question for the home user mostly because we see our time as valuable. But I thought this was a worthy question and I could help a friend and now I would like to share my responce with you as well...

It always depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your PC but usually for a home PC it would be better to shutdown when not in use. It will save power and save wear and tear on the PC itself. Usually a home PC isn’t used that often, maybe a couple of hours a day. There isn’t much need for it to be on in the long hours that the family is a sleep at night or away at school and work during the day. You only need your computer up if its working while you are asleep or away. Sometime I have applications running that work on downloading large files that take a long time so I let it run during the night to find my files downloaded for me in the morning.

Of course make sure you keep the computer up to date with all necessary security patches and keep your Virus software up to date. Some automatic update configurations wait for opportune moments to update the PC such as at night when no one would be using the PC. You should check occasionally to make sure updates are working properly and change configs to work with your usage of the PC and/or manually update the PC yourself.

I don’t see any reason a desktop PC needs to be running 24/7 (although my PC seems to be left on a lot). Starting up and shutting down a PC is not difficult and newer PCs seem to have a relatively quick boot time. But if you are one of those people who find it a pain to shut down and start up a PC you can also look into the option of using the power potions in the Control Panel. You can set the PC to ‘sleep’ or ‘hibernate’ when the computer has not been used for a certain amount of time if someone walks away from the PC but forgets to shut it down. Using this method it will switch to a low power mode saving the state of the PC so when the user returns the user can wake the computer back up returning to the previous saved state.

Sleep = low power mode, memory is left energized to save the state of the PC. Usually pressing a key on the keyboard will bring the PC out of sleep mode. If the power button flashes on and off while in sleep mode the power button will be used to bring out of sleep mode. Options in BIOS can also be set to change sleep/wake behavior. The down side is If power is lost to PC, the state is lost and the computer will need to be booted up as normal and any unsaved progress will be lost.

Hibernate = memory and complete state of PC are saved to hard drive before PC is completely powered off. Powering PC up as normal, the PC will boot up and return PC to previous saved state. Hibernate mode takes slightly longer than sleep mode to wake the computer back up but has advantage that PC is completely powered off while in hibernate

Direct Connect P2P

Alright, I'm a Geek and here comes the geeky stuff. I was reading up on how to create your own P2P network to share some files with each other. Its fairly easy but I'd figure I would document some of my findings for futre reference including links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Connect_(file_sharing)
Open Direct Connect Hub - Opendchub - weak
http://sourceforge.net/projects/opendchub/
http://opendchub.sourceforge.net/
verlihub - good but needs MySQL
http://www.verlihub-project.org/doku.php
ptokax - PC based?
http://www.ptokax.org/index.html

Thougher than Amish

This weekend my wife and I took a short weekend trip to Lancaster, PA, Amish country (http://www.padutchcountry.com). As you drive around occasionally you might see a Amish horse and buggy heading down the road or one of the Amish folk dressed in black walking allong the shoulder of the road. They pretty much believe in not useing modern technology while passer-bys cruse on in their luxery cars talking on cell phones. I got to say that choosing to live a smiple lifestyle as theirs has some appeal. Not to worry about money and live mostly self reliant with no debts has its appeal. But they do this by working hard. To not have to pay for an expensive car, home and insurance that suck away our hard earned money from our jobs has an appeal. But these folk are just darn tough on themself. On one day it was miserable cold, windy and raining all day, my wife and I were trying to find activities to enjoy indoors where it was comfortable. So we did some shopping at some of the local outlet malls. As we drove to different places I think I saw more Amish out and about treking through the rain than ever. I saw one Amish family pushing on down a long stretch of road in the worst conditions even with a baby stroller containing the youngest. But they were a family that was together and happy. Thats tough...
Then today I watched Last One Standing on the Discovery Channel. Six Guys with their roots in western civilization in a though man match against each other while performing in local fighting/warrior competitions in third world countries around the world. Each one of these guys have different strengths and abilities but it seems that none of them is so well rounded that they stand out well in some of the competitions they have taken part in. In a couple of competitions some never made it past the first round or their level of competition could not even compare to the local atheletes of places they visit. Of course the locals have been training all their life for that specific competition. But these guys are supposed to be the ultimate atheletes of our culture up against the ultimate atheletes of other cultures. The training and living experiences they go though you have to be tough to endure. At times these guys are getting so tore up in the training you wonder if they will even make it to the acutal competition. In some cases they don't. We have already seen broken ribs, blistered and bleeding feet and an injured back. What these guys are doing is very unique and interesting but I would say that watching this tough of the tough loose in matches across the world make the rest of us look like whimps as well.
These 6 should try this: dress in Amish clothing and walk 5 miles in freezing rain WHITHOUT COMPLAINING. Tough is that little Amish boy walking with his parents in the rain holding his mothers hand and looking into his fathers face with love because they were together as a family no matter the circumstances. If you don't understand the previous statement then you just don't know how hard it is to feel good about anyone or anything around you while you are going through one of the worst experiences of your life.

A toy or a tool...

My wife complains because she says I have too many computers. My problem is that I don't have enough.
Before I was married I had different times in my life where I found so many ways to use a computer. There was my progammer phase I tried to learn programming and write my own software. There was an artfull literary phase where I would play with digital art and write stories and play with desktop publishing. There was the "Gameing Phase" where I would have spent hours to days playing games in my free time. I still keep putzing around with the web phase to have my own web empire. And so many other experiences that I have realized how powerful and wonderful digital technology is.
But for all of you who would agree with my wife you probably would think "if only you could take all that energy and make some money off this hobbie of yours." Actually I have been working for a large company providing computer support for my customers for the past 9 years. My job has availed me to play with some really cool "toys" so that I can help people that need to use that "tool" more effectively in a professional enviornment because I have experienced its potential by playing around with it.
To me I have made it. I was able to turn my hobbie into a job. And I enjoy what I do. And my cusomers like me because of it.

How the web was one

The web site at the center of the EvilShiloh Empire
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