@ Your Service Blog

Spyware and/or viruses can infect your PC at any moment without proper protection, and can range from minor nuisances to major problems resulting in slow PC performance or loss of data. Over the last six years I have helped my clients battle this perpetual threat, and I am almost always surprised at the inventiveness of those whom develop spyware and viruses, or ‘malware’ as it is sometimes referred to. So the big question many people ask is “do I have a virus, or do I have spyware?” Usually it’s a mixture of both. Perhaps we should examine all the types of malware out there first.

• A virus typically hides inside of another program (or ‘host’) and cannot cause harm until that program has been started, or ‘executed’. This is pretty much how viruses have worked over the last 20 years or so. However, there are other kinds of viruses that lurk out there, such as ‘worms’ that do not require host programs to become active. ‘Trojan horse’ viruses  appear to be harmless at first, can cause major damage, and are nearly undetectable by some scanning programs.

• Spyware has the ability to spy on your website viewing habits, or even worse harvest personal information from your computer. Spyware can also cause random pop-ups to appear, make your browser redirect you to sites where viruses can infect your computer, or in extreme cases make your computer dial expensive long distance numbers (for those using a dial-up connection).

• A rootkit is a program (or combination of several programs) designed to take fundamental control of a computer system, without authorization by the system’s owners and legitimate managers. These are a relatively recent phenomenon, and can sometimes be found in the unlikeliest of places (i.e. when Sony BMG caused a scandal by including rootkit software on music CDs which altered the Windows OS to allow access to anyone aware of the rootkit’s installation. Supposedly, this was done to enforce copy protection of the music on the CDs. The scandal following the discovery and subsequent public notice of this corporate-sponsored malware—a scandal made much worse by the clumsy, insufficient, evasive, and misrepresentative statements of Sony executives—made many users previously unfamiliar with rootkits wary. - quoted from Wikipedia entry)

So what do you do if you suspect you have any of the above, or want to protect you system from future infections? Thankfully there are plenty of good, free tools out there to get the job done. I’ve been using them for over 6 years now and recommend them to all of my clients, none of which have complained about infections since.

• First on my list is Grisoft’s AVG Anti-virus Free Edition, which is an award-winning program that does an amazing job of removing viruses and other nasties from your computer. In fact, in my experience it has caught viruses that both Norton and McAfee have missed! It’s a quick, easy install and doesn’t slow your system down like other protection programs do. Better yet, you can selectively choose any file or folder for scanning, or let AVG automatically handle scanning duties at any time you choose. If you have $50 to spare, go ahead and get the full-featured version which includes a comprehensive collection of spyware and anti-rootkit software.

• Second on my list is Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware Free 2008, which is dedicated to eliminating all varieties of spyware, including any cookies on your computer that could lead to future infection. Once again, the full-featured version offers more features, but the free version is plenty good for those suspecting that their computer is infected.

• Threatfire is a newcomer to the scene, and is a unique product in that it provides a hybrid service. It works as a “live” anti-spyware/anti-virus tool and will catch anything as it tries to come in to your computer. It’s a quick download, it’s free, you should really have this.

• Every now and then a client has a computer that has a particularly nasty bit of malware that simply cannot be removed by most programs. That’s where HijackThis comes in. This powerhouse of a program is not for the novice user and usually requires intermediate or advanced computer knowledge to operate. It’s unique in that it scans your system, creates a log file which you upload to their website, and are then presented with a list of which items in the list are ‘nasty’ or ’safe’. Truly unique, and a must-have for difficult malware situations.

I could go on with a longer list, but to be honest the above four programs are pretty much all I need to do battle with the infections I encounter on PCs. Sure, there are those rare occasions where a more specialized tool is needed, but for 95% of malware infections these should do the job! If you have any questions, comments, or wish to add your own recommendations, send me a line!

Happy hunting!

Brian Kenney @ Your Service

It’s happened to all of us at some point: You put your CD or DVD in the player and it skips on your favorite track or simply won’t play at all. In the early to mid 1980s, CDs were advertised as being nearly indestructible and impervious to scratches or dirt. Since the market wasn’t as mature as it is today, consumers had to be inventive when repairing their precious CDs.

Over the last two decades a number of commercial and home-brew options have appeared, the most popular being:

1. Skip Dr.: The most well-known of commercial CD/DVD repair systems. I’ve had some personal experience with Skip Dr. and have seen mixed results.

2. Toothpaste: Probably the most famous of do-it-yourself repair methods. The intended effect with toothpaste is that its mild abrasiveness will wear down the plastic around the scratch and the polishing ingredients will fill in any scratches. Once again, expect mixed results.

3. Pine-Sol, Brasso, Pledge, Turtle wax, Vaseline, etc: I personally would avoid using commercial cleaners or polishers, since some of the chemicals in these products can have deleterious effects, and in effect may eat away at the plastic and make your CD even worse. Some people defend that they work if you want to quickly back up your disc on your computer. Again, expect mixed results.

4. Emery boards, water and felt: Yes! Some extreme users have used a mixture of emery boards and water to sand down scratched areas and then buff out the milky area with felt. I’d say you would have to be pretty desperate and dedicated to try this.

My personal method, and one I find to be the most successful is Novus’ Plastic Polish #2. Its intended purpose is to repair fine scratches on plastic surfaces, not necessarily CDs or DVDs. But as it turns out, it works quite well. I found that applying just a dab and using a Q-tip on the scratch area of the disc was very effective. If you should want to try this method be sure to use subtle, circular motions with the Q-tip until the polish starts to dry. Then use a lint-free cloth to buff the area. You should notice a diminished scratch and your disc will be more likely to play skip free. This also works well with recordable CDs and DVDs.

One thing to look for before you attempt any repair is to see if the scratch has gone so deep that it appears on the label side of the disc. If you see this, any repair attempts may be unsuccessful, since these kinds of scratches have damaged the actual data portion of the disc.

So, what to do if your disc won’t play and there aren’t any scratches on it? In this instance, you’re probably dealing with a cheaply manufactured disc that has become unplayable due to extreme temperature change or slight bending of the disc. Here’s what I recommend if you run into this sort of problem:

1. It could be that the disc or your player are incompatible due to slight variations in how the laser reads the disc. Try it in another player.
2. If it won’t work in another player, try it on a CD/DVD drive on a PC or Mac. These drives are more sensitive than commercial CD/DVD players and may be able to read the disc.
3. Try a CD/DVD recovery program on your computer. For PC there is the excellent program ISObuster. It scours the contents of the disc and even slows down your CD/DVD drive to carefully recover the data. (If any of you are aware of a CD/DVD recovery program for Mac, let us know! We’ll give you full credit and a link here.)

Ultimately, an ounce of prevention is the best way to ensure your discs will play on. Here’s a list of methods to keep them skip-free for a long time:

• Always hold your discs by the edge and don’t touch the non-label side of the disc.
• When you’re finished with the disc, be sure to carefully put it back in its case.
• Try to keep your CDs or DVDs in a dust-free area.
• If you have to wipe off the disc, always use a lint-free cloth, and wipe from center of the disc to the edge. Never wipe in circular movements.
• Back-up your CDs and DVDs if you have a computer with the proper CD/DVD burner. This way you can keep your originals safe, and just play the copied versions.
• If possible, be sure to stop playing the disc before ejecting. This will keep any circular scratches from appearing on it due to the disc spinning on the tray as it comes out.

I also happened upon an interesting product called the D-Skin, which is a transparent wrapping you put on the disc itself and can even remain on the disc when its inserted into a CD or DVD player. This looks like a great idea for those particularly precious discs that you cannot afford to lose. For those of you that are looking for archival quality CD-R discs, try TDKs archival line, which are also scratch-proof.

So, good luck to all of you who attempt to repair your CDs and DVDs. If you have any methods that you find work well for you, leave a comment or send an email. We’d love to hear from you.

Best regards,
Until next time…

Brian Kenney @ Your Service

For those of you familiar with the pains of upgrading to a new operating system, the occasional glitch and bug is to be expected, but what to do if you find a major flaw for which there is no fix? Windows Vista is surely not exempt from the list of OSes that have resulted in frequent hair-pulling.

One interesting flaw that a client of mine ran into was the damage caused by installing an older version of Office (97) in Windows Vista. The Office program itself worked fine, but what happened to Vista’s built-in email client “Windows Mail” was quite strange. She couldn’t open any attachments from within Windows Mail, including .jpgs or .doc files. After several attempts to fix it and many fruitless searches in online forums, I decided the easiest solution to this problem was to think outside the “Windows box” as far as what email program to use. Since my time with this client, I’ve learned that many others have run into this problem, and as of this post Microsoft has yet to issue a fix for it.

Here’s what you do:

1. Download Mozilla Thunderbird. It’s an elegant and free email client. Vastly superior to Windows Mail. You can get it at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

2. Install Thunderbird. Configure it to work with your email account, and if it asks to be set as the default email program click “Yes”.

3. Open Windows Mail and forward any emails with attachments back to yourself by using your own email address. Be sure to close Windows Mail before it checks for new messages. Otherwise they will boomerang back into Windows Mail.

4. Open Thunderbird. Check for new messages. Once they arrive, try opening those with attachments. They should open without any problems.

I find this solution to be much more than just a band-aid approach to fixing the problem. Mozilla Thunderbird is a fantastic, easy to use, free alternative to Windows Mail, and doesn’t skimp on features either. So if you find yourself experiencing this particular problem, you will probably be better off downloading and installing Thunderbird anyway!

Best of luck!
Until next time…

Brian Kenney @ Your Service

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