Limewire, a common denominator among Vundo infestations.

I have seen a few computers now that have been infected with the pesky (and resilient) trojan known as Vundo. 
pictured above: false threat detections indicated by a vundo "fake anti-virus" variant.

For those that aren’t aware, Vundo appears in many forms-- Spyware Protect 2009, Anti-Virus 2009, Anti Spyware 2009, and AntiVirus 360 just to name a few. I can’t stress enough how persistent this infection is, and removing it can prove to be quite a feat.

Vundo, by design, attaches itself to an area of your system in which its modules are being loaded before you even see your desktop. Its filenames are randomly generated, making a step by step removal tutorial impractical. I have seen many internet security programs fail to remove this threat. Norton and Spybot Search and Destroy are both successful at detecting it, but neither one is effective at removing it. Even the one program that I have been most successful at removing Vundo with, can sometimes be blocked from execution by Vundo’s processes.

The most common denominator in Vundo infections? Limewire. Not that I wish to advocate illegally obtaining copyrighted materials without paying royalties, but in the interests of protecting my potential clients, a little advice for safe downloading on Limewire.

Whenever you search for media, make sure the bit rate and file size make sense.
If you are attempting to download a song that is about 4 minutes long, first, make sure that it has a bit rate, and then make sure the file size is appropriate to that bitrate. Example: 128k bitrate x 240 seconds = 30,720Kbits or 3,840KBytes. You don’t have to do a whole bunch of math, but eventually you will get an idea of how big the files should be.

Avoid results that don’t make sense.
Have you ever heard of a cover band doing Flo-Rida? No! Then, why would you expect to see a “flo-rida right round [rare cover].mp3” file? There are “listeners” that sit on Limewire’s network and match infected file names to your search terms. Sometimes they try to entice further by adding stuff to make the file even more appealing. Which brings me to my next tip…

Try not to use every term in your search.
If you were to search for something like Brandy’s “Full Moon,” try just using the terms Brandy and Moon. That way, when you see “Full Moon” appear in your results despite not searching “full,” you can expect it to be what you want. If you see just “moon brandy” or “brandy moon” expect it to be some garbage.

Finally, Scan your files before you open them.
This is self explanatory. If you don’t have a anti-virus program with on demand scanning, I recommend you get one that does. There are too many free ones out there that will scan a file just from a right click menu

Is Vista really all that bad?

Have you used Vista yet?  Microsoft has been taking a lot of heat from people about how “lousy” an operating system Vista is.  The commonly used analogy is, “Windows is like Star Trek films,” meaning they usually follow a good, bad, good pattern.  Quite a few of the people I talk to about it haven’t even used it, but are channeling the opinion of their local computer expert.  It  begs the question- is it really so bad?

 In my observation, it seems that relying on the opinion of your local computer tech nerd special-geek, may seem like a good idea when it comes to, say, making a computer purchase, or selecting an appropriate system upgrade.  Furthermore those of us who have learned many of the intricacies of the Windows XP interface, do have a slightly higher than desired difficulty adjusting to Vista’s interface changes.  Windows Vista’s interface, however, wasn’t designed for people like myself.  It was designed so that your average “run-of-the-mill” end-user can figure out how to accomplish sys-admin related tasks without being a sys-admin.

 This was the same concept behind the complete redesign of the Microsoft Office Word 2007 interface.  While it can prove incredibly frustrating to someone who already is extremely adept when it comes to exploiting all of Word’s features in 2003, your average end user probably ignores the conventional menu bar until it comes time to save, and probably didn’t know word had such powerful features.

 Microsoft’s goal was to take the Settings and features and put them right in front in a plain English, “I want to change the setting for this,” kind of way.  To make life easier on the common user, (which I’m sure makes up a larger market share of windows users than the nerds!)

 Not to say that Vista is perfect!  Indeed, it has its share of flaws.  User Account Control for one was uncomfortably oppressive until they finally fixed it a little with Vista’s service pack 1 update.  I think these things will be improved upon as well in the upcoming Windows  release, but I wouldn’t expect  Windows 7 to be entirely different from Vista.  Although, by the time it releases, I expect it will be better received, since people will already be familiar with Vista by then.  Thus perpetuating the “Trek” analogy.

 -CCT

When the Geeks are really Pimps (more on warranties)

I know the big box stores are a lot of fun.  We go in there, poke around check out new stuff, and we love to look for the deals.  I myself, even purchased this very laptop from which I'm typing this blog from your local yellow tag big box store.  It is funny to me, however, to see all the "extra" services the store offers with purchase when it comes to computer products.  The truth of the matter is, when you buy your computer, or when you commit to a service plan, they are really trying to squeeze every dollar they can out of you.  There is an ugly truth though, and that's the fact that when the service squad "pimps," they pimp hard.

There are a number of add-ons they will offer, and some of them potentially make sense, but there are things that they do not tell you as well.  So allow me to tell fill in the missing details.

Usually the first thing they offer you is an extended service agreement.  These agreements usually cost around $150 to provide additional warranty coverage for your machine.  This would be great, except when you bring your unit in for service, they will take the path of least resistance to make your computer work again.  In many cases, this means complete manufacturer re-imaging of the hard drive, which erases the existing data, and restores the hard drive back to an “unpacked” state.  (Meaning, your computer’s software will be as if you just unpacked the machine from the box.)  I wish I could say that labor was the prime factor in deciding whether to repair or re-image, but when I see how quickly they are to offer the $130 restore service, it becomes obvious to me that money is the most determinate factor.  In other words, the geeks are pimping.  By actually extending your manufacturer’s warranty, with the manufacturer, it seems that you make better use of your money, and depending on the retailer, you can probably drop the machine off for warranty service with the store anyway.

In addition to the service plan, the geeks often offer to create system recovery disks for you.  There are some ideological flaws associated with the usefulness of this service.  For one, if you are an individual who is comfortable with performing this restore process on your own, you should also be comfortable with creating your own disks.  Also, most HP/Compaq machines can be restored without disks as long as you don’t mind sacrificing the small percentage of disk space that is already allocated for system recovery.  Having the restore media might still come in handy if you had a hard drive failure, but if under warranty, the manufacturer’s replacement might be preloaded with the appropriate software. 

If you are not comfortable restoring your own system, then you would probably get the geeks to do it for you.  You should note, however, this service is NOT included with your extended service plan.  The recovery disk creation by the Geeks costs a whopping $59 bucks, but if you contact your manufacturer, you can probably get disks from them.  I can order recovery media for my laptop from HP for just over fifteen dollars.

A Word on Warranties

All too often, when we go out into big box retail stores and purchase everything from housewares and small appliances to high end consumer electronics, we are approached with that age old question.  "Would you like to purchase an extended service agreement?"

There are some products in which I feel that it is absolutely crucial to invest in these extended warranties.  With Digital cameras and camcorders, digital TV's, car stereos, for example, I would call it a necessity.  Computers and laptops, however, absolutely not.

I know of at least three instances in recent history where the big blue and gold would sell their extended "dork" squad warranty with a machine, but their victims would find their "protection plan" absolutely useless when it came to problems with their machines.  Their warranty would cover them had it been something like "hard drive crapped out" or system board failure.  Most people, however, don't have hardware related problems with their machines.  Their illustrious bloatware security suite that comes with their computer offers no long term protection, and let's face it, about 75-90% of computer users just don't browse smart.

So after about three months of owning your machine, and your internet security software expires, most people start to become exposed to threats on their machine.  eventually there's some kind of virus or malware program that brings your system to a screeching hault, and when you take it back to the "store" for "warranty repair,"  SUPRISE!  You're not covered for that.  I actually heard some moron on the other side of the counter tell one of my clients that they wanted to charge her $130 to completely reformat her hard drive and reinstall the factory image.  (Blog about this coming soon.)

So what about protection for your computer?  I fully believe in purchasing extended warranties for your new computer or laptop.  I just believe in buying them from the manufacturer of my computer.  For example, I can purchase, from Hewlett Packard a warranty extension, (total two years from purchase date,) that includes accident coverage (drops, spills, etc.) for 249.99, and with this coverage HP will come get it from me, and bring it to me when they're done.  They also assist with virus and spyware removal.  Without the accident protection, an add on year (total two years from purchase date) costs about $170.  Your manufacturer will sell you an extended warranty on your product regardless of from where you purchased it.