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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2005-11-03

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

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2) Reg Cleaner Follow-Up

Our recent tests of 10 different Registry-cleaners ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=171203805 ) are still bringing in reader responses, like these:

Fred: As a Plus subscriber I continue to enjoy & learn from your column.  When I get a spare hour I'm having a go with Easycleaner & JV16.  However: Just had an offer to buy Ashampoo Magic Defrag ( http://www.ashampoo.com/ ) it runs in the background & defrags your drive when the PC is idle & claims to be better than MS XP version (probably not too difficult).  At a low price I thought it worth a try & what do you know it works!  I defrag my drives fairly regularly & the XP software always leaves many files fragmented but Magic Defrag sorted them all so now I don't have to schedule defrags or even think about it.  Not bad for the cost. [Separately,] I run the MS free beta which seems OK & stable however my pc magazine (PCPro) has just run some tests on 9 lots of spyware software & found an a wide range of detection accuracy from 36% to 83% (none perfect - scary). Ms came out joint 4th with PCTools at the top - wondered if you had any views on this important topic? Keep up the good work. ---Peter

Thanks, Peter. Ashampoo offers several products which seem to be pretty good; we've mentioned some before ( http://www.google.com/search?as_q=Ashampoo&as_sitesearch=langa.com ). Their web site is at  http://www.ashampoo.com/ , and they offer a free trial, so you can test-drive the software to see if it suits your needs.

As for the antispyware tests see also this note:

Fred: An in-depth security study regarding anti-trojan products was recently conducted by Morgud.com and the results were rather surprising.  The Optix Pro 1.33 trojan was pitted against all major Antitrojan products as of August 2005 and although no single product detected all variants... the details of this study can be found here: http://www.morgud.com/interests/security/optix-faceoff.asp --- Morgud

"Morgud" is the nom-de-web of the guy who writes the eponymous site; his human name isn't published anywhere I could find, including in the DNS records for the web site. However, the site appears to be well done, and I can only marvel at the amount of time and effort that went into the anti-trojan tests.

That said, the tests only used one sample trojan. The test results may be indicative, but they're certainly not definitive: You really can't do much with a one-sample test except go "Hmmmmm."

The test Peter mentions is a bit more comprehensive, but arrives at a similar "no one product catches everything" conclusion.

This is one of the reasons why I've always recommended a multilayer approach to security: With a well-thought-out selection of security tools running, you can create a fine sieve that will catch almost any kind of nastyware or hack attack that comes along. Whatever one tool or layer might miss, another layer can catch.

To put it the other way, the above is the reason why I don't think it's good to rely on any one product for protection. Nothing does it all; and if you count on any one tool to provide essentially all your security, something may slip through. With no backstop to catch what the primary tool misses, you're toast.

For more info, and a suggested list of tools to build a multi-layer defense, see http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-08-11.htm#5

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3) More Ways To Tweak Software Boot Order

In "Tweaking Software Boot Order" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-10-20.htm#4 ) we began discussing ways to control what software auto-loads at startup, and when. This can be a useful way to speed up boot times, and/or to prevent too many heavy-duty programs from competing for system resources (CPU time, bandwidth, disk access, etc) at the same time.

 Here's more:

I have a solution to the Software Boot Order problem. Free and very simple. Works great. http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/utility/delayexec/
Command line options for DelayExec:
delayexec.exe [filename] [delay in seconds]
The filename is the path to the file you would like to launch. The delay is the number of seconds you want to delay before launching the file. Example:
delay.exe "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OUTLOOK.EXE" 60
The example above would delay 60 seconds before launching Outlook.
---Brian

Hi Fred, In your 20 October issue Russell Mayer was looking for some way to speed up their boot process by controlling software loads. Well, I respectfully remind you of this old edition of your newsletter: http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-06-27.htm#1 It covers the "Startup Delayer" tool from R2 Studios, which allows you to set delay times for programs that start at boot time. I checked it out when you mentioned it (on a Win98 system) and it cured the occasional blue screen I was getting at boot, so I've kept it ever since. It sounds just what Russell is looking for. Anyway, R2 seems to have kept the tool alive - there's a version for XP. Best of all, it's still freeware. ---Jaypeabey

Yes, the Archives contains many such nuggets. <g>

And if that's not enough, there's always the "Wait" command in DOS or in a Command box:

http://www.google.com/search?q=wait%2Eexe
http://www.techiwarehouse.com/cms/articles.php?cat=39

So you see, there are *lots* of ways to control your boot order!

Thanks, Jay and Brian!

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4) Reader Suggestions On Avoiding Censorship

In "Circumventing Censorship" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-10-24.htm#5 ), we tried to help a reader in Iran deal with the delicate matter of accessing unfiltered/uncensored news. As usual, a number of readers had some very interesting information to add:

One possible solution for the censorship dilemma is the use of proxy servers for browsing. A discussion of this can be found here:
http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/public-proxy.html  ---Mark Payton

Hi Fred, Your correspondent can get some tips on avoiding censorship by downloading this PDF booklet, "The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents" from http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542.  Although it is aimed at bloggers and other online journalists, it may have practical applications and advice in other spheres where state censorship is an issue. Best wishes,
Laurence Cooper

Fred, In your recent article on circumventing censorship you mention, " but I know of no tool that works the other way: Your system has to "see" the real address of the sites it's contacting in order to get there." While it's true both ends of a connection need to authenticate and the final destination in your Web request needs to know how to get information back to you, there are very good mechanisms to prevent eaves dropping. Tor onion routing solutions ( http://tor.eff.org/ ) are currently the best solution for this. Government organizations rely on onion routing so that covert operatives can authenticate with a server from hostile territory without political enemies watching network traffic being able to determine the location of the request. The software does slow down your network connection, but it's currently the recommended solution for keeping your Internet data requests private. ---Jake Ludington

Howdy Fred, Your newsletters not only give me valuable information but sometimes remind me of times long past. In the summer of 1995 I attended DefCon 3 in Las Vegas. It had a very long list of extremely interesting speakers, including Bruce Schneier, author of "Applied Cryptography", Winn Schwartau, author of "Information Warfare", and Phil Zimmerman, author of the PGP encryption program, followed by the attorney general who was trying to put Phil Zimmerman in prison (to give the government's side). The reader from Iran reminded me of Phil Zimmerman's talk. Zimmerman told us of the many thanks he received from those trying to bring down the Communist regime in Russia who routinely used PGP for e-mail communication between each other. Then he told us of what happened when PGP was used in what was Yugoslavia as it dissolved into civil war. The encryption was unbreakable. However, the government assumed that the only reason to be using encryption was specifically to hide the contents of the e-mail from the government. The Government didn't know what was being said, but they knew who was saying it. The result was that if you used PGP to encrypt your e-mails, government forces would out of hand kill you and your family as anti government agents. The encryption program worked beautifully, but you were dead. My point to your reader in Iran is to bear in mind that it may not matter that the government can't figure out which sites he is going to; if they sense at all that he is trying to spoof his surfing he may be assumed guilty and gone after accordingly. ---Tony Chariott

Interesting and sobering stuff. Of course, some of that doesn't just pertain to places like Iran; provisions in the so-called "Patriot Act" here in the US also allow for the US Government to interpret certain ambiguous actions as de facto proof of guilt. Scary times.

Be careful out there, folks.

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5) "LiveUpdate" Troubles

Fred: I have tried in vain to find an answer to this, so I think it would be a good topic for the Langalist:

Why is Liveupdate set to run every four hours upon installation? It appears that the antivirus definitions are only updated once a week for Liveupdate users, so why is it checking the server every four hours if even the daily definition updates are not going to be downloaded? I had set Liveupdate to check every eight hours instead of every four and finally disabled it altogether, since I wind up always having to go to Symantec's site and just downloading and installing the new updates manually.

And although I liked the idea of added protection with the new Internet Worm Protection, which came as part of the upgrade to Norton Antivirus 2005, I had to disable that as well, since no matter what rules I added, it would still block my home network from connecting to the computer on which Norton is installed, even though one of the default rules allows access for the 192.* range and I should not have to set up new rules at all. I even went thru the online help system on Symantec's site with tech support to set up new rules with no success. And the oddest part was that no computers showed as being blocked by Internet Worm Protection, but as soon as I disabled it, the network was fine again. I also use ZA pro and a router firewall, both of which allow my home network and Norton access.

I can't be the only person having these problems, but searches only showed that most users with a firewall already in place recommended disabling Internet Worm Protection since it was just overkill and could slow down the system, but nobody reported network problems and as I already noted, found nothing on why Liveupdate has to be allowed to run automatically when it really offers less protection than running an update every couple of days manually....?  ---jerie

In general, LiveUpdate files are posted about once a week; but Symantec *could* post a LiveUpdate file sooner (as in response to a huge outbreak of a nasty worm or virus). I assume the frequent net-checks are so that you'll catch any update within 4 hours of whenever it's posted. Also, frequent net-checks will let LiveUpdate synch fairly quickly on PCs that have only intermittent internet access.

The problem I had with LiveUpdate was different: It won't let you get the latest file ahead of your scheduled time, even if you trigger it manually: LiveUpdate will report "no new update" even if there is one available on the manual download portions of the Symantec site. I didn't like that at all: I wanted, the latest updates as soon as they're available.

So, instead of waiting for LiveUpdate to get around to downloading a new file, I'd manually go to this page every couple days: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html . Once there, I'd click on the "Download Virus Definitions (Intelligent Updater Only)" link, and grab the latest-available definition file, usually days before LiveUpdate would have access to it.

But I no longer have to do that. Now, my main PC is protected with Eset's NOD32 antivirus; and that usually automatically updates itself every day, and sometimes more than once per day. I don't have to hunt manually for the latest files, and I like that.

As for the Worm protection, my guess is that you've run into the kind of problem we discussed in "Software Suites Versus Standalone Tools" http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=169400298 ; where suites have gotten so large and complex that they have to "own" the PC they're running on, or they may not work very well. If you happen to prefer some other tool for a particular function, you may be in for trouble as the tools each fight for dominance.

At least for now, I prefer to pick the "best of class" tool in each category and assemble my own security suite; rather than accepting whatever a particular vendor saw fit to stuff in the box. <g> More info: See item #2, above,

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6) Recommend This Newsletter And Win!

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, maybe a friend would find it useful too! Just use the following link to recommend the LangaList---your friend may find a new source of useful information and you just may win one of three FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the LangaList Plus! edition given each month. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus! subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.)

Check out the details at http://langa.com/recommend.htm . Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck!

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7) Fax Fix

Fred - Do you know of any computer fax program that will work with a DSL line?  I used WinFax Pro when I had a dial-up modem but that doesn't work anymore. Tom Donaldson

Fax is a kind of machine-to-machine telephone call using analog signals over voice-phone lines; DSL is a kind of digital data network, unsuited for analog signals. But some DSL setups have a voice option (eg a place where you can plug in a standard telephone). In those setups, you may be able to plug a fax modem into that socket, and dial out normally. Or, if you can reach any other standard phone socket in your house from your PC, you can plug the fax modem there: You'll surf via the DSL (or cable) connection; but fax over your normal phone lines.

If you don't have a fax modem; they're incredibly cheap; often under $10:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=fax+modem&tab=wf&scoring=p

If that won't work for whatever reason, there are many web-based services that let you send faxes: These services accept your text or scanned photos or whatnot via the internet, handle the conversion to a fax image at their end, and then send the fax via their phone lines. There's usually a fee for this. Other services perform a second conversion, and send the fax as an email to your recipient; or store the fax on their system for the recipient to retrieve via their web browser. Some of these services are free, at least for low-volume faxing.

http://www.google.com/search?q=web+fax

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8) And *Another* Code Load Success Story

After his site was listed in the last "Load The Code" section, code-loader Chris Wilson wrote:

Hello Fred: I just was reviewing my web stats, and saw that on the 22^nd my site traffic literally went off the scale.  Lo and behold I find that you listed my site in that days edition. Thanks for the great traffic boost.  I write and edit for a small free computer newspaper, and we are telling all of our readers what a tremendous resource your newsletter is. Thanks again! ---Chris Wilson

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the thousands of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm

scarlet's creations
http://www.scarletscreations.com/

Daniel Gressmann, Real Estate
http://www.foragoodrealtor.com/

Olenik Family webpage
http://www.oleniks.org/

Crate Designs
http://crate.ca/links.htm

Miss Derry
http://www.missderry.org/

Dukgeeek.net
http://www.dukgeeek.net/

Everywhere's Local
http://everywhereslocal.com/

Procrastinators Unite! (Later)
http://unitelater.com/s9y/

Can You Hear Me Now?
http://canyouhearmenow.typepad.com/

RSPCA (UK)
http://www.rspca-northeast.org/

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9) Frappr

Have you encountered "Frappr," a front-end to Google's mapping service? Frapper lets you placemark locations for public sharing, and is being used by many groups to allow members to indicate their individual locations. (Supposedly, "Frappr" is derived from "friend"+"mapper.") By looking at the Frappr map as a whole, you can gain an instant gestalt of where the group members are, and how many are near you.

For security, Frappr maps each member's location only to the center of their town; not to the street or house level. You couldn't really use Frappr, by itself, to pin down someone's exact location. That's probably a good thing.

Want to see how it works? I set up a LangaList Frappr; and entered myself as the first member. If you wish, enter your own location (no cost, no obligation; it's just an experiment, and for fun), and we'll see what happens as this issue spreads around the globe, first to Plus! Edition members, and later, to Standard Edition members. <g>.

http://www.frappr.com/langalist

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10) Just For Grins

Fred, I always learn from your newsletters, and I am very grateful.  I just got a big kick out of this one, and thought I better pass it along:

How Smart is Your Right Foot?

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind.  And if you are anywhere near as stubborn as I am, you will keep trying at least a few more times to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't.

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.

I told you so.  And, there's nothing you can do about it!

Go ahead KEEP TRYING ALL YOU WANT!

Have a great day!

Now get back to work!!

---Matt Morris, Murrells Inlet, SC

Yikes! I can't do it either!

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 40% more content including:

• Getting More From (Expensive!) Laptop Batteries
     (how to get long life from a new laptop)
• File Frustration
     (files not visible, hard to delete, or otherwise troublesome?)
• Interesting Email Client
     (firsthand reports from an early user)
• Quick Answers Wanted
     (tradeoffs: quick versus thorough fixes?)

The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK
GUARANTEE from Fred. You can't lose!

Plus! Edition info: http://langa.com/plus.htm 

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(Give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

The LangaList is published about 72 times a year, or about 6 times a month. See you next issue, 2005-11-07!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win a prize!)

An easier-to read formatted HTML version is available in the "Current Issue" section of http://langa.com.  (The HTML version of each issue normally is available by 9AM EST [UT-5] of the issue date.) All past LangaList issues are also available at the Langa.Com site.

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