Security Software- Pay or Free?

(updated 3/2/11)
I've noticed that most computers I work with have Norton or McAfee installed. Usually this is because new computers come stuffed with these programs, for which the manufacturers pay a fee. These programs can cost $80/yr, more or less, for the "suites". Often I find that these programs overwhelm the resources of their computers, making the computers slow and unresponsive.

This year, 2011, Norton is top rated by some organizations (see PCWorld).  Reportedly, the performance issues have been resolved.  However, my opinion is that Norton is overkill for home computers.  There are free alternatives that do well and, in fact, provide better service when you have a problem. 

In 2009 I recommened  AVAST for antivirus and spyware, and then Ad-Aware as a second spyware program. (It's good to have a couple spyware programs running.)

With any of these programs, the free edition usually lacks a full automatic scan feature; you have to remember to do that automatically or set up a windows task to run the scan.

However, since Microsoft came out with a full Suite, Microsoft Security Essentials, MSE, I've been using it.  I've installed it on many computers and have had no failures.  Microsoft treats this program like any other update.  The Microsoft Update application, which you should have turned on to automatically update your operating system, automatically updates MSE.  MSE is easy to use.  It is has a green icon on your taskbar when everything is OK.  The icon turns orange if you need to do something, like perform an update because you have turned off Microsoft Update, or Microsoft Update hasn't run for whatever reason.  The icon turns red if it finds something wrong.

In addition to MSE, I install Malwarebytes as a "backup."  If I suspect there is malware on my computer, I run Malwarebytes.  This is a professional, heavy duty product, and will usually do the job of detecting malware.  (I use "usually" because there is a particular kind of malware, called "rootkits," that require special programs and knowledge to "root out."  That's another few blog entries.)  

Malwarebyte is not perfect.   Its problem is that it can have false positives:  it will identify objects that don't need to be deleted.  If you have any questions, you can call me or google the identified object.  The results will tell you whether or not you want to delete it. 

Saving $80 per year and improving the performance of your computer makes this a worthwhile option.

Removing Norton or McAfee is not straightforward. I can help with that, and installing the free security software of your choice.  There are special programs available on both company's sites that do the removal.  Look for them.   For example, Google "Norton removal," and look for a url that is on the companies web site.  Something like this:

Download and run the Norton Removal Tool to uninstall your Norton ...

The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2003 and later products, Norton 360, and Norton SystemWorks 12.0 from your computer. ...
us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public... - Cached

  

Some Distance Criteria for DSL

What distance guidelines are used by SBC for service. (#5558)

Here’s some distance criteria (from the base station) for different levels of DSL.  (Note I think SBC means Southwestern Bell, which is now/again an ATT company).  Recall 1 mile = 5280 feet. 

So, I am supposed to have DSL Deluxe… Max Distance 9000 ft = 1.7 miles.  Ha! That gets me about half way up Raven.  On the other hand, we aren’t being charged $60 either. I’m paying about $20 as part of a bundle and that will go up to $33 if I unbundle.  

A summary of the new distance requirements...
SBC Yahoo Basic- up to 384/128 max distance 16000 ft
SBC Yahoo Standard Plus 384-1.5/128 max distance 12000ft
SBC Yahoo DSL Deluxe 768-1.5/256 max distance 9000 ft
SBC Yahoo DSL Expert Plus 1.5-6/384 max distance 7500 ft
Rates:
Basic package 42.95 (dynamic)
Standard Plus package 49.95 (dynamic)
Standard Plus package 64.95 (static ip)
Deluxe 59.95 (dynamic)
Deluxe 79.95 (static)
Expert 159.95 (static)

How to Search the Blog

I was talking to my son about Blog features, and he reminded me to keep the entries short. OK. I agree. Here's this tip: If you want to see if I've discussed something in the blog, then click Search Blog at the top of the page. Enter the search terms and the blog's "engine" will provide you with the text of all blogs containing those terms. It's helpful.

Firewalls, why, when you need, and what to get

To the typical computer user, firewalls are a pain in the neck.  Well, let me correct myself:  To every user firewalls are a pain in the neck.  A firewall exists to prevent malicious software from accessing your computer or, if  certain kinds of malicious software do make it to your computer, to prevent the software from using your computer as a home base to do damage to your house network and as a satellite base to infect other computers world-wide. 

Windows comes with a firewall.  Your DSL or cable modem comes with a firewall.  Your router comes with a firewall.  Rule of thumb:  typically, you only need one firewall.  If you have more than one firewall on your network, then your network or computer can behave in mysterious ways, which usually looks a lot like your DSL connection is broken (because the firewall doesn’t allow access to the network).

To cut to the chase:  If you have only desktops and no one ever attaches a laptop that travels outside your network to your network, you only need to have the firewall in your DSL.  If you happen to use a router, then the router has the firewall and your DSL modem is set on pass through.  That’s still one firewall.

I’ve found that, once your network is running completely smoothly, the Windows Firewall can be turned on and it will not interfere with network operation.  It can be left on.  However, on some occasions where things don’t work right, one of the first things I do is turn off the Windows firewall to see if that’s the problem. 

If you have a laptop and that laptop ever connects to some other network, or if you have visitors who bring their laptop and attach to your network, then you need to protect your network by having a firewall on every computer in your house.  This is because that notebook might be infected with a malicious program.  By connecting to your network, they can bypass your router or modem firewall. 

IF you have one or more programs for spyware on every computer, and that spyware works all the time to check network transactions and computers for spyware signatures, and you run the spyware to check your entire computer periodically (every week or two)…

AND

you have a virus program that is always running and that you run to check your entire computer periodically (every week or two)…

THEN

turning on your Windows Firewall on every computer should give your network protection against the notebook scenario.  Be aware that the Windows Firewall through the Vista version only checks incoming communications for problems; it doesn’t check outgoing communications.  So, if your computer ever becomes infected with one of the spyware varieties that sends message OUT, Windows Firewall will not catch the problem.

If you have a kids or grandkids using your computers and bringing their computers in to connect to your network, then it makes sense to install a better firewall program on each of your computers.  The firewall I install is the top-rated free one:  COMODO.  The download comes with both a firewall and a virus program.  I don’t install the virus program because there’s a better rated one available (AVAST).

I’ll have some words about COMODO in a subsequent blog entry. 

PS:  If guests want to connect to your network, before you allow them to connect: 

Ask them to run both a complete spyware and a complete virus check on their computer. 

Make sure their firewall is on before you allow them to connect.  This will protect both their computer and your network from infection. 

Remember, as an option you can always use the built in “GUEST” user on your own computer, so they don’t need their computer.  Of course, they may have a zillion songs on theirs, or documents they need, but sometimes they may just want to get to their email, which they can do through the on line web email function of their internet provider. 

 

Questions?

Laptop Sale June 22-23

Lenovo is having a 48 hour sale on laptops, some less than $500. Lenovo is top rated for laptops. http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/na/LenovoPortal/en_US/special-offers.workflow:ShowPromo?LandingPage=/All/US/Landing_pages/Promos/laptops-employee-pricing&cid=USPCWEDM062209&.

No doubt there are end of quarter sales quotas involved, so if you need/want a laptop, now's the time to buy. You don't get as good a bargain at the other end of quarter sales because they run into holiday times.

Buying inkjet printers and cost

I’m not going into a lot of detail here.  There’s a buyer guide on PCWorld that is pretty good. I wanted to focus on printing your own pictures.  Some rules of thumb:

You need at least 600 x 600 px/in for a good print.  This means for a 4x6 you need 2400x3600 or a file of about 3.5meg.  Pictures can look huge on your computer, but your computer only does somewhere between 60 and 95 dpi.  So a 4x6 print at the right pixel density would be, for the 95dpi, about 24x36 inches.  In other words, it looks huge on your screen at its native resolution, but it is small when printed.  (Note that photo viewers can “automatically” reduce the picture size by mathematically manipulating the pixels, so you get a picture that “fits” in the viewing area.  But you’re not looking at the picture in its native form.)

If you print the picture at a lesser resolution, then you will need to print it smaller or expect the picture to be grainy.  Some printer software will attempt to “fill the gaps,” but the results will be mixed.

Inkjet printers are notoriously expensive / photo.  The cost of the photo can be calculated by adding the cost of the paper and taking the yield of each cartridge and dividing it into the cost of each cartridge.  (Link to some example costs.)

Don’t trash your old cartridges.  On the other hand, refilling an inkjet cartridge is risky, at best.  I’d be interested if you found a way to do it.  Around here, call Cartridge World and see if they support your cartridge.  Other than shops that specialize in businesses, Cartridge World offers the best price and value of any of the refill alternatives.  There’s a store in Greenville near Whole Foods in that new mall complex and another in Spartanburg near Kohl’s at 29 and 26.  For us on the mountain, the Spartanburg store is much easier and faster to get to.

To get rid of your cartridges, take them to a store that pays for them.  I think Staples pays $3/cartridge.

What about store brands?  I’ve had no luck with them.  What the stores do is refill those cartridges you sell to them and stick their own label on the cartridge.  I’ve tried 3 different times to use the Staple store brand and none of them worked. 

In general, my recommendation is to send your photos via email to Costco or Walmart.  They will print at a lower cost than you can.  Pick the prints up the same day or the next day.  Just remember, use a large enough pixel count to get a real photo quality print. 

Proflowers.com’s “scam”

We recently wanted to send flowers to a sick relative and, since our experience with Proflowers at another time was good, Chris decided to use them. 

A couple of days later I saw a charge on my credit card for $1.95 from “Easy Saver” 

(If you don’t use Quicken’s update mechanism for accounts, you should.  I can set you up.  Give me a call.  I see any transactions logged to any of my accounts the next day.  This gives me time to contest any problems even before receiving my statement.  Last fall I caught an identify thief before any damage was done.)

I’ll make a long story short:  I typed easy saver into Google and quickly hit upon the http://www.complaintsboard.com web site.  It gave me all the info I needed on this and another scam being run by Proflowers.  Well, let me be clear… technically, it wasn’t a scam, since all the “small print” was somewhere on the web page or on a document linked to the web page.  However, the way the web page is organized, a good many people won’t see the “warning signs” and will be “caught.” 

The details are in the messages on the complaintsboard site.  The bottom line is:  if you order from Proflowers, do not follow any links that offer “free” shipping on your next order or a “free” coupon for some amount off on your next order.  If you follow the link, you will automatically have your credit card charged for as much as $14.95 a month for forever.  Proflowers has a very funny relationship with this Easy Saver company and other front companies related to Easy Saver.  Proflowers automatically sends these other companies your credit card information and Easy Saver starts charging your card.  So…. Buyer Beware. 

Complaintsboard.com- check out if a web site has any problems

I’ve found a web site that has been very helpful to me when I had a problem with a web site.  It is Complaintsboard.com.  This site gives you a running dialog of problems people have had when doing business with companies that do business on the web. More in the next entry. 

Can’t get wifi in some part of your house? Here’s a way: est cost $125.

There is a class of wifi device that sends the computer signal over the wires in your house.  They are called Powerline Networking Kits.  Here’s what you do:

• The device comes in two parts.  Plug one part into a wall outlet (not a power bar) near your router.  Connect it to your router with an internet cable.
• Plug the other part in wall outlet the area of your house that needs a signal.
• Plug whatever you want to connect to your network into that device using an ethernet cable. 

The “whatever” can be a computer or a wifi router configured to be an AP, or access point.  Or it can be Tivo box that has an ethernet port.  (There is a way to configure some wifi routers so they don’t need to be connected in this way in order to “amplify” your main wifi signal.  The disadvantages of the configuration is that it can be slow and most routers won’t work in this way.) 

In PCWorld, the best rated adapter was a D-Link DHP-303.  (Read Review). 

There is a kind of a catch:  This may be the highest rated, but, as a rule of thumb, you should stick with one brand for all your networking devices.  So if you use Linksys, then it might be better to stick with Linksys. 

Contact me if you’re interested and I’ll research further for your specific situation. 

Note:  the cost can run from $70 to $125 or more ignoring any sales.   Plus you might need another wifi router as an AP.  You or I might have a router sitting around that can be used as the AP.  Again, I’d have to research the specific situation.  

This is a lot cheaper than running cable around your house!

Why might your DSL Service be so bad??? What I found out from ATT

When I use some programs that use "streaming," such as listening to the radio, watching movies, or Skyping, I've noticed pauses in the feed. At my speed, which is supposed to be 1.5MB download and .25 MB upload- that's what they sell it as- You'd think I, and you, shouldn't have any problems. I was especially having some delays with Sharedview yesterday, so I began to look into the problem. I found a network test program and ran it several times. The results:

Performed at URL: http://speedtest.phonepower.com/repeat.html

Jitter: 2.4728 ms PLoss: 0.6% Down: 1,188,872 bps Up: 217,744 bps QOS: 87% RTT: 81 ms MaxPause: 418ms Test#: 53681
Jitter: 3.304 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 720,616 bps Up: 216,920 bps QOS: 34% RTT: 82 ms MaxPause: 647ms Test#: 53683
Jitter: 2.696 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 895,480 bps Up: 215,928 bps QOS: 21% RTT: 82 ms MaxPause: 1252ms Test#: 53685
Jitter: 0.712 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 980,904 bps Up: 219,904 bps QOS: 50% RTT: 81 ms MaxPause: 446ms Test#: 53729
Jitter: 0.086 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 752,168 bps Up: 209,248 bps QOS: 7% RTT: 83 ms MaxPause: 563ms Test#: 53731
Jitter: 0.144 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 1,244,312 bps Up: 212,192 bps QOS: 74% RTT: 106 ms MaxPause: 353ms Test#: 53733
Jitter: 0.982 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 994,208 bps Up: 219,576 bps QOS: 49% RTT: 78 ms MaxPause: 645ms Test#: 54107
Jitter: 0.21 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 823,728 bps Up: 220,048 bps QOS: 19% RTT: 79 ms MaxPause: 840ms Test#: 54109
Jitter: 0.066 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 963,864 bps Up: 219,640 bps QOS: 37% RTT: 79 ms MaxPause: 621ms Test#: 54111

After the serviceman cut off 2 loops (down and back Outlook Ledge and from our house to the end of Eagle Rock and return:

(While the printer was creating a PDF file)
Jitter: 4.326 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 1,045,400 bps Up: 219,576 bps QOS: 35% RTT: 77 ms MaxPause: 614ms Test#: 54483
Jitter: 0.346 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 950,000 bps Up: 219,840 bps QOS: 33% RTT: 78 ms MaxPause: 662ms Test#: 54487
Jitter: 2.758 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 1,086,320 bps Up: 216,048 bps QOS: 31% RTT: 80 ms MaxPause: 708ms Test#: 54493
Jitter: 0.114 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 1,175,264 bps Up: 219,512 bps QOS: 79% RTT: 79 ms MaxPause: 417ms Test#: 54508
Jitter: 1.566 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 1,242,912 bps Up: 218,304 bps QOS: 67% RTT: 80 ms MaxPause: 353ms Test#: 54514
Jitter: 0.792 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 803,784 bps Up: 219,840 bps QOS: 20% RTT: 80 ms MaxPause: 657ms Test#: 54519
(After printer was done- confirmed no other use of line and no computer activity- though this shouldn’t make a difference; you’d want a phone to work even when people are using the computer.)
itter: 0.162 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 1,066,088 bps Up: 219,784 bps QOS: 30% RTT: 79 ms MaxPause: 585ms Test#: 54539
Jitter: 0.124 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 1,062,528 bps Up: 219,648 bps QOS: 38% RTT: 79 ms MaxPause: 602ms Test#: 54542
Jitter: 1.174 ms PLoss: 0% Down: 762,368 bps Up: 219,592 bps QOS: 2% RTT: 79 ms MaxPause: 839ms Test#: 54546

These are a lot of numbers, but let me give you some insights.

Jitter is the variation is the delay of packet delivery- it is especially important in VOIP and other "real-time" streaming applications. These measurements show jitter is pretty good, though anything above 1 ms or so may require the software to manage jitter with "buffers" designed for that purpose. Anything above 100ms can't be fixed with buffering software. Note that some of the ISP service level agreement- what they promise for jitter are:

• Qwest: 2ms max
  
• Viteria: 1ms max
  
• Several others: .5 ms max
  

So the variability in the measurements above is a problem!

PLoss is "packet loss" and the number here is great.

Down and Up are the speeds of download and upload respectively. We are told 1.5Mb. You can see I don't get anywhere near that, and in several measurements I've done it is half that. (Except, read on for a fix.)

QOS is "quality of service." This is where ATT does not deliver! On the other hand, some of this may be due to in-house circuits, so read on.

If the QOS number is below about 80%, then you can't have a good audio conference. The sound will "ring" and there will be delays, such that you feel like you are talking over one another. In general, you can't get VOIP service (see another post). As you can see, most of the time our QOS is 30% or below. We are not being given the service we are paying for on the mountain.

Now, let me finish this blog by saying that I called in a service request on this issue. ATT sent someone out the next morning. He did various measurements and here are the findings.

• I had an old modem. This can cause some problems. The serviceman gave me a new modem. It did not solve the QOS problem. As a matter of fact, it performed worse on QOS than the old modem.
  
• The router did not seem to cause a problem, though I will investigate settings on both the modem and the router later.
  
• The big problem is the length of the line from the place where our DSL wires plug into their "box" and our house. DSL performance degrades with distance. 3 miles would be really pushing the technology. Well, the boxes are located at the top of the mountain, near the clubhouse. If you are on Eagle Rock, what's the distance to the club house??? 2-3 miles? I haven't measured it, but it is about a mile to Raven. It's got to be at least a mile to the end of Raven. So, the further you are from the clubhouse, the slower your speed and the worse all the performance numbers! I think it is a shame that there is only one location of boxes for the mountain.
  
• My situation was worse. There were two loops my signal had to follow in addition to the distance from the top of the mountain to my house. My signal went down the length of Outlook Ledge and back and then down to the end of Eagle Rock and back before I "hopped" on. My guess on mileage is an additional 2 miles of length. At that distance, 4-5 miles, it is a wonder I am getting any signal! The repairman reattached my DSL connection so I caught the line as it first went by the house and changed the connection at Outlook Ledge so the signal didn't go down Outlook Ledge first. You'll note the average Down and Up times did pick up significantly. Nothing else seems to have improved. I think we are just too far away to begin with.
  

I hope this helps you understand some of the limitations we have on the mountain. One is that VOIP will probably not work, at least for us on Eagle Rock. I'm going to do some checking and folks houses at the top of the mountain and see if the readings are better.

Free Credit Reports- 1/yr from each credit monitor

You can get one credit report each year from the three major credit monitoring companies. Let's see, the three are... Equifax, Experian, and... I can't remember the 3rd one. To do this conveniently, go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Fill in some basic info and then select from one to three of the companies. You'll be walked through the steps to get the report and you can print it out immediately.

Note that these reports don't give you your FICA score free. Each site tries, in its own way to get money out of you, but, unless you want to spend the money, ignore the teases and the big print. Look for the small print, usually at the bottom, that says something like "never mind, I'm a cheapskate, just give me what you advertised."

Creating slide shows, movies, or both- Free VIsta Solution

Windows Vista Personal Premium includes Windows DVD Maker as part of the license. The link is

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/dvd-maker.aspx

This creates a DVD that is playable on any DVD player. You can mix movies and pictures and add sound as well.

This feature is not available on XP.

Slow Computer?

I've helped several who have a Windows machine with the "slow computer" problem. If you watched me, you would see that I use a free utility called "Glary Utilities" to do cleanup. Here's the drill I follow (Some terms below may be unfamiliar; over time I'll get around to explaining them.)

1. Remove unnecessary programs the slow down your computer's startup
2. Clean up your hard drive, removing temporary files
3. Bring you operating system up to date. If not already installed, I install the relatively new MS Automatic Update feature, so you get automatic updates
4. Remove unnecessary programs- ones you don't use
5. Defragment your drive
6. Clean out and defrag your registry
7. Update your hardware drivers
8. Run a program that identifies settings on your system that slow performance.
9. Change programs, such as your security program and your PDF reader to alternatives that do the same thing more efficiently. These programs are free.

I also look at your hardware for improvement. The key item is your RAM. You need 1 GB of RAM for XP, 2 GB of RAM for Vista. You might read that you can get by with less, but that's not my exerience with your machines.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to do any of the above. I have to make that judgment before I begin:

• Perform the above- which can take 8 hours or more
• Reinstall the operating system (things are just too bad)- might take more than 8 hours due to reinstallation of the programs you have installed yourself
• Buy a new machine
  

A new machine, either laptop or desktop, can cost about $600. That's usually sufficient for what you do. I try to keep my rates low,much less than prevailing rate, because you're friends and neighbors. But the above exercise at improving your computer's performance, when measured at the standard rate of $60-$100/hr, can easily surpass the cost of a new machine.

I'll give you purchase options on this blog.

I'll continue the theme of performance improvements on subsequent posts.

Laptops and Other Computer Stuff Sales

I've been asked from time to time about inexpensive laptops. I have a Lenovo, which I got for about $500 through my IBM discount program. I added $100 to get a 2 yr IN HOME repair contract. I've already used it once, replacing a part that cost well over $100- in my home!

I have a DELL sales mag with some laptops for $449. The mag also has a coupon code good for 15% off on stuff. I can provide it to you. This includes monitors. DELL monitors can be used with any computer and they are always highly rated.

Let me know if you want anything.

Facebook Security Tips

There are recommended ways to use social media websites as facebook and still keep an acceptable level of personal security

Facebook has provided users with powerful controls to protect themselves online, and it is up to individuals to check and ensure that appropriate settings are in place. Sophos has published recommendations for how to configure the settings for each of these privacy areas of Facebook.

Five minutes spent learning the ins-and-outs of Facebook's privacy settings, for instance, could save a lot of heartache later.

If you do use Facebook -- or other social networking sites -- here are a few security tips from Sophos:

1. Think carefully about who you allow to become your friend. Once you have accepted someone as your friend they will be able to access any information about you (including photographs) that you have marked as viewable by your friends. You can remove friends at any time should you change your mind about someone.

2. Show "limited friends" a cut-down version of your profile You can choose to make people 'limited friends' who only have access to a cut-down version of your profile if you wish. This can be useful if you have associates who you do not wish to give full friend status to, or feel uncomfortable sharing personal information with.

3. Disable options, then open them one by one Think about how you want to use Facebook. If it's only to keep in touch with people and be able to contact them then maybe it's better to turn off the bells and whistles. It makes a lot of sense to disable an option until you have decided you do want and need it, rather than start with everything accessible.

Facebook best practice

ID fraudsters target Facebook and other social networking sites to harvest information about you. Sophos experts recommend you set the following Facebook privacy options to protect against online identity theft. This guide walks you through Sophos-recommended privacy settings in Facebook, and shows you how to set more secure levels of privacy and reduce the chance of becoming a victim of online identity theft. Profile Controls who can see your profile Search Allows you to decide who can find you News feed and mini-feed Controls what information is published about your activities Poke, message and friend request Controls what information you share with people you contact Applications Controls what information Facebook applications can access and share about you General safety tips for Facebook Adjust Facebook privacy settings to help protect your identity Unlike some other social networking sites, Facebook has provided some powerful options to protect you online - but it's up to you to use them! Think carefully about who you allow to become your friend Once you have accepted someone as your friend they will be able to access any information about you (including photographs) that you have marked as viewable by your friends. You can remove friends at any time should you change your mind about someone. Show "limited friends" a cut-down version of your profile You can choose to make people 'limited friends' who only have access to a cut-down version of your profile if you wish. This can be useful if you have associates who you do not wish to give full friend status to, or feel uncomfortable sharing personal information with. Disable options, then open them one by one Think about how you want to use Facebook. If it's only to keep in touch with people and be able to contact them then maybe it's better to turn off the bells and whistles. It makes a lot of sense to disable an option until you have decided you do want and need it, rather than start with everything accessible.

Post Questions as Comments to this Entry

If you have questions, you can use this post. Click on the Comments at the bottom and ask your question. I'll answer them as soon as possible.

Thank youl Duane

How this blog works

I've started this blog for my customers to provide tips that relate directly to you. Subscribing to this blog can save you a lot of grief and can also provide a way to ask questions "in context," which I can answer for all subscribers.

This is free. The address of the blog is http://leetlinktips.blogspot.com/.

To register, click on the link. On the right is an icon "Follow"
This allows you to "sign in" with one of several user ids.

If you don't have a user ID in any of the companies listed, then you should create a free google ID. I do a lot of stuff with Google, so you will get value out of this ID.

Once you've signed in, there's a button that says "follow this blog".
Once you click on that an acknowledgement is displayed. Click on "Close".

Be sure to have Windows updated Tuesday June 9

Microsoft is fixing a number of problems in it's June 9th release. (MS publishes fixes every Tuesday, some more important than others.) Please make sure your computer is set to automatic update and that you install these fixes.

Here's the detailed announcement:



Microsoft is prepping the largest Patch Tuesday release of 2009 so far. The June release will feature 10 security bulletins, including bulletins covering critical vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer.

Microsoft has 10 security bulletins coming June 9, its biggest Patch Tuesday release of 2009 so far.

Of the bulletins, six have the highest rating of "critical." Two of those six address remote code execution vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system. The other critical bulletins affect multiple versions of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word, Excel, and Office.

In addition to the six bulletins addressing critical vulnerabilities, Microsoft is pushing out four other bulletins, all of which are aimed at fixing issues in the Windows operating system. Three of the four are rated "important," while the fourth is classified as "moderate".

Not mentioned is the DirectShow vulnerability Microsoft warned users about in May as hackers began to launch attacks. The DirectX vulnerability lies in the way DirectShow handles supported QuickTime format files.

In a blog post, Microsoft officials said security teams are working hard on the DirectShow issue but do not have an update yet that is ready for release. Information about workarounds for the flaw can be found here.

A patch for a vulnerability affecting WebDav is also not on the menu. What did make the cut for Patch Tuesday is an update for Office for Mac and Microsoft Works to provide cover for a PowerPoint vulnerability.

Tas Giakouminakis, CTO of Rapid7, said the Microsoft security bulletins highlight the importance of enterprises having a solid patch management cycle.

"The large number of vulnerabilities to be patched in June shows that attackers are not slowing down and the opportunities for them to infiltrate customer networks are increasing," Giakouminakis said.

For details: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Microsoft-Patches-31-Vulnerabilities-From-IE-to-Windows-815002/?kc=EWKNLENT06122009STR2