"Your pointer to the very best
Tech information on the Web"
Issue 103 - 18th November, 2003
Support Alert is a registered online serial publication
ISSN 1448-7020.
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Quote of the Week
=================
"Keeping your job in tech support today, means knowing how to balance your time. Balancing your time that is, between solving problems and creating them."
- Richard Cohen
EDITORIAL
=========
If you are a modem user, I've got some really good news for you.
You see, for the last month I've been stuck in a country town looking after a sick relative. That was OK but using my laptop modem with a marginal rural phone line was not.
After a week of trying to get my work done at 28Kbps connection speeds, I was ready to tear my hair out.
So I decided to do something about it.
I spent the next week trying every conceivable way to improve my modem performance.
I tweaked my TCP connections using five different tools.
I tried every so called "accelerator" utility I could get my hand on.
I tried three different subscription-based web acceleration services.
And what were the results of all this?
First up, I discovered snake oil. Lots of it, whole reservoirs. Extravagant product promises with little or no delivery.
There were TCP optimizers that didn't optimize anything, accelerators that slowed your connection down, high performance web services that ran like dogs.
And then there was the adware. Not to mention the secretly installed spyware.
That's the bad news. Now the good news, and it's very good news indeed.
In the end I got my modem going fast. So fast that on normal browsing, I didn't even miss my broadband connection.
Measurements suggested that I was running about three times faster than before optimization. It felt like it too.
Less spectacular was the improvement in download speed. I only improved that by 30%. Still, that's not bad.
So how did I get these improvements?
That story is too long for this column but I've documented it in the form of a guide at the Support Alert web site. In the guide you'll find the techniques that I found effective and the few products that actually worked.
I'm pretty sure that most modem users who follow this guide will get the same speed improvement I achieved.
Let me know what results you get.
You can find the free Internet speedup guide at the following link: http://www.techsupportalert.com/accelerators.htm
Gizmo
mailto:editor@techsupportalert.com
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SUBSCRIBER QUIZ
===============
LAST ISSUE’S QUIZ: - "What's the best free registry cleaner and why is it the best?"
ANSWER: Here's my pathetic paraphrase of the 3000 word winning answer from Hans Schneider, who apparently is doing a Masters thesis on registry cleaners! "The best registry cleaner is the one that removes erroneous and unnecessary entries from the registry but does not cause problems. Ideally the user should hand-check every registry entry before deletion but generally this is not possible. This means that conservative products will prove in the long run to be best. Of the three available free registry cleaners: RegSeeker, BeClean and EasyClean, the first is slow and very aggressive and the second has known problems with Windows XP. EasyClean though is fast, quite conservative and most likely to be reliable over many applications."
Thanks Hans. You left out another free cleaner RegScrub which is also conservative in the number of entries it removes. However I still agree with your conclusion; Easy Clean is probably the best free registry cleaner. I just wish that the Registry backup and restore operations in Easy Clean were a little clearer to the average user.
This question has generated a lot of email, including many horror stories of PCs being trashed by dud registry cleaners. The whole area really needs a good close look. I'll see if I can get something together for the next issue. Hans has generously offered to help.
THIS ISSUE’S QUIZ: Win a free copy of PestPatrol!
"What's the best way to migrate applications to a new PC without reinstalling the software?"
Send your answer to the address below and win a copy of
PestPatrol.
mailto:editor@techsupportalert.com. Use the subject line "The
Subscriber Quiz".
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IN THIS ISSUE
1. TOP TECH SITES
- Get Shareware as Freeware
- Speed up Your PC
- Free Phone Calls over the Internet
- Microsoft Guide to Security Patch Management
- Migrating to an Open Source Environment (SE Edition)
- The Best DVD Burner (SE Edition)
- Help with Windows Installer Problems (SE Edition)
- How to Counter RIAA Tactics (SE Edition)
2. UTILITIES
- Google from Anywhere *** Hot Product Alert ***
- Top Virus Cleaner Free for Home Use
- The Fastest Browser?
- Easy Way to Kill the Windows Messenger Service
- Free PDF Creation Tool
- Fetch Browser Links in Background
- Transfer Data Easily to a Remote Server (SE Edition)
- Useful Outlook Add-Ins (SE Edition)
- A Notes Organizer that Really Works (SE Edition)
- Free! Full-Text Search Your Hard Drive Files (SE Edition)
3. SECURITY PATCHES, SERVICE RELEASES AND UPDATES
- Buffer Overrun in FrontPage Server Extensions (813360)
- Vulnerability in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel (831527)
- Buffer Overrun in the Office Workstation Service (828749)
- Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (824145)
- Office 2003 Update (828041)
- Enhanced OutClass Outlook Spam Filter
4. OTHER USEFUL STUFF
- Hassle-Free Way to Mirror Your Hard Drive
- Wanted: Shoshkele Blockers
- Learn to Edit the Windows Registry
- Stealth Your Drives
- FTP Error Codes Explained
- Improve Your Google Searches
- How to Get Better Tech Support (SE Edition)
- 50 Ways to Lose Your Data (SE Edition)
- Cheap Way to Get HDTV (SE Edition)
- How to Stop Windows XP Disk Data Corruption (SE Edition)
5. FREEBIE OF THE WEEK
- Free Hotkey Utility
- Free High Performance Remote Control Software (SE Edition)
Items marked "SE Edition" appear only in the special Supporter's
Edition of this newsletter. This edition is reserved exclusively
for those generous individuals who have donated to this site.
1. TOP TECH SITES
=================
Get Shareware as Freeware
Great freeware products often end up as shareware. This site offers
downloads of the final freeware versions of many such products. Their
list of products is not complete but it's still quite extensive. They also
feature some great freeware utilities, like The Proxomitron, that are no
longer available from their authors.
http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32_freeware.html
Speed Up Your PC
This site offers a good collection of performance enhancing tweaks.
I've seen most of them elsewhere but here they are nicely organized with
many tweaks available as downloadable .reg files for those timid about
patching the Windows Registry.
http://www.pureperformance.com/
Free Phone Calls over the Internet
A few issues ago I gave a glowing account of Skype, the free utility
that allows you speak to your distant friends over the Internet for nix.
Here's a review by ExtremeTech of Skype and competitor, SIPhone.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1356967,00.asp
Microsoft Guide to Security Patch Management
This free, downloadable guide is geared towards helping organizations
manage this increasingly burdensome task. Some good information here,
I just wish they wouldn't use phrases like “Microsoft takes security threats
very seriously, quickly providing guidance and, when necessary, security
patches for vulnerabilities."
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=275144
** Bonus Items for Supporters **
- A comprehensive free report outling the issues in migrating to an Open Source environment
- The best DVD burner. Cheap too.
- Help with Windows Installer problems
- How to counter RIAA tactics
Got some top sites to suggest? Send them to
mailto:editor@techsupportalert.com
2. UTILITIES
=============
Google from Anywhere *** Hot Product Alert ***
Google has just released the beta of DeskBar, a search box located
in the taskbar that allows you to perform a Google search from any application.
Results come up in a special mini-viewer in a 3/4 screen sized window that
overlays whatever application you are currently running. It comes with
lots of options and features including the ability to search a thesaurus
or look up definitions. A really neat feature is that you can select any
text in your application and search that text by hitting Ctrl-Alt-G. The
only downside is yet more demands on your taskbar real estate. Everyone
should try this one, even Dave's Search Bar users. (413KB)
http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/
Top Virus Cleaner Free for Home Use
AVG Antivirus has long been my recommended free virus cleaner but
after using Avast! Home Edition V4, it looks like AVG has some real competition.
The detection performance is impressive, recording 100% detection rates
at Virus Bulletin's monthly tests. Also impressive was the simple (and
skinable) user interface and the automatic virus signature file updates.
Avast! provides both file and email protection. The latter can be configured
to work with any POP3/IMAP4 email client and there is a special module
for direct integration into Outlook. I'm impressed but let me know your
experience, particularly if you've also used AVG. (6.4MB)
http://www.avast.com/i_idt_226.html
The Fastest Browser?
The Mozilla project has spawned two separate browsers, both of
which are free and available for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. There's the
original Mozilla complete with full blown email, news and editing features
and that's now at version 1.5. Then there's my favorite, the smaller and
much faster Mozilla Firebird. The just-released version 0.7 of the latter
adds the ability to automatically download files to your desktop and open
bookmarks in your sidebar using Web panels. If you are looking for a fast
tabbed window browser with fewer security problems than Internet Explorer
then you simply must check out Mozilla Firebird. I love it. (6MB)
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/
Easy Way to Kill the Windows Messenger Service
I've mentioned this several times before but, based on the subscriber
mail I get, it's worth repeating. If you run Windows NT/2000/XP/2003
then you really should turn off the Windows Messenger Service. It's turned
on by default and can be used by spammers to interrupt your work with popup
ads at anytime, even when you are not using your web browser. Another reason
to turn it off is that there are some serious security risks associated
with the service. The easiest way to disable it is to run Steve Gibson's
tiny little utility called "Shoot the Messenger." And no, this won't
affect your Windows Instant Messaging. That's an unrelated product that
just happens to share the same name. (22KB)
http://grc.com/stm/shootthemessenger.htm
Free PDF Creation Tool
A few issues ago I mentioned a low cost PDF creation program and
this prompted long time subscriber JW to write in about the free utility
called PDFCreator available from SourceForge. It works by setting up a
pseudo printer in your system. To create a PDF you just select the PDF
"printer" and write to it. (7.75MB)
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57796&release_id=173100
Fetch Browser Links in Background
In a previous issue I described how you can use the MyIE2 browser
to click links while reading a newsletter and have the links fetch in the
background. This prompted subscriber Ravi Maharaj to write in about an
alternative to MyIE2 called Sleipnir. He pointed out that Sleipnir doesn't
steal focus like MyIE2 or IE so you can click newsletter links to your
heart's content without your reading being interrupted. I checked
Sleipnir out and it's an impressive. Like MyIE2 it's a free tabbed
browser shell that uses the IE engine. It's got the cleanest interface
of any of these products, it's zippy, and has an inbuilt scripting engine.
On the minus side, the English language documentation is a bit thin on
the ground and it doesn't support IE add-ins so that means you can't use
the Google toolbar. BTW, Ravi should know a bit about shells; he's the
editor of Shell Shocked, a web magazine specializing in, eh, shells. Check
out his impressive web site. (956KB)
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/url/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww20.pos.to%2F%7Esleipnir%2F&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_d
http://shell-shocked.org/
** Bonus Items for Supporters **
- Transfer data easily to a remote server
- Useful Outlook Add-Ins that make life easier
- At last, a notes organizer that really works
- Free! Full-text search your hard drive files
Got some favorite utilities to suggest? Send them to
mailto:editor@techsupportalert.com
3. SECURITY PATCHES, SERVICE RELEASES AND UPDATES
=================================================
Microsoft has announced that it is now merging all its new security bulletins into a single cumulative bulletin that will be published on the second Tuesday of each month. I've rescheduled this newsletter to be published on the second Wednesday of each month so I can include the latest news.
Buffer Overrun in FrontPage Server Extensions (813360)
Severity: Critical
Systems affected: Win2K SP1/2, WinXP & SP1, Office XP &
SR1
Problem: There are two new security vulnerabilities in Microsoft
FrontPage Server Extensions. The first, a buffer overflow problem, could
enable an attacker to run code of choice. The second problem involves a
flaw in the SmartHTML interpreter which, if exploited, could cause the
server to fail. A patch is available from the link below or Windows Update.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-051.asp
Vulnerability in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel (831527)
Severity: Important
Systems affected: Win2K SP2/3/4, WinXP & SP1 & 64bit
An unchecked buffer in the Workstation service could allow an attacker
to "take any action on the system, including installing programs, viewing
data, changing data, or deleting data, or creating new accounts with full
privileges." Windows XP users who have applied MS03-043 previously are
not affected and do not need to patch this problem.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-050.asp
Buffer Overrun in the Office Workstation Service (828749)
Severity: Important
Systems affected: Word 97/98/2000, Excel 97/2000/2002, Works Suite
2002/2003/2004
A flaw exists in the way Word checks macro names embedded in a
document which, if exploited, could overflow a data value in Word and allow
arbitrary code to be executed. The Excel flaw is in the macro security
checking which could allow a malicious macro embedded in an Excel file
to be executed automatically. Separate patches are available from the link
below for each affected product version. Alternatively, go to the Office
Update site.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.asp
Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (824145)
Severity: Critical
Systems affected: IE V5.01, 5.5, 6.0 & SP1, 6 for Server 2003
This is the latest in the never ending series of Internet Explorer
cumulative updates. As usual, this one includes all previous fixes plus
patches for the most recently discovered vulnerabilities. The five new
bugs include three particularly nasty cross-domain scripting problems so
don't delay applying this patch. Details below or from the Windows Update
site.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-048.asp
Office 2003 Update (828041)
Severity: Critical
Systems affected: Office 2003
"This update fixes a problem that occurs when you try to open or
to save a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 file, a Microsoft Office Word
2003 file, or a Microsoft Office Excel 2003 file that includes an OfficeArt
shape that was previously modified and saved in an earlier version of Microsoft
Office." Users may be unable to open such files or file content may be
corrupted.
Patches are available from the Office Update site or from the link
below.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=828041
Enhanced OutClass Outlook Spam Filter
Outclass is the excellent free add-in that allows you to run the
class-leading Bayesian spam filter POPFile from within Microsoft Outlook.
These two free products work together to create a filter that is lethal
to spam yet allows your real mail to go through unimpeded. Version
1.2.4 of OutClass has been released and includes many enhancements.
It's still free but requires you to run version 0.19 of POPFile.
(208KB)
http://www.vargonsoft.com/Outclass/
http://popfile.sourceforge.net/
4. OTHER USEFUL STUFF
=====================
Hassle-Free Way to Mirror Your Hard Drive
With hard drives so cheap these days, mirroring the entire contents
of your main drive onto a second drive is an attractive backup option.
But setting up a mirrored drive using a Raid controller and driver is a
demanding exercise for most users. Arco is now offering a far simpler
alternative. DupliDisk3 is a hardware box that fits into a spare drive
bay and connects your main and mirrored drives using Raid-1. All that is
required is the physical connection of the drives and then a simple configuration
setup using the supplied management software. That's it, no fiddling with
Windows, nothing. Now all your data, including the operating system, will
be backed up in real time. Models are available to fit 3.5 and 5.25
inch bays as well as a PCI card version. Recommended retail is around $269
with street prices down to around $210.
http://www.arcoide.com/products/raidcontrollers/raidcontrollers.html
Wanted: Shoshkele Blockers
Popup ads are gradually being phased out as they are too easily
blocked by users. One of their replacements is a technology called Shoshkeles.
These are those intrusive flash animated ads that sit on top of the web
site content you are trying to view. Thankfully after a few seconds they
usually disappear or move away. Existing Popup stoppers can't stop Shoshkeles
and it's difficult to see how they could as the entire web page is rendered
in Flash, not just the animated ad objects. Turning Flash and/or JavaScript
off in your browser will work but that has other implications. I'm sure
someone will come up with a technological fix but, meantime, you can't
escape the ads.
http://www.unitedvirtualities.com/
Learn to Edit the Windows Registry
Check out this Microsoft article headed, "A Crash Course: Editing
the Windows NT Registry." Despite the title, it's not just for NT but applicable
to other Windows versions as well.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnexnt01/html/ewn0201.asp
Stealth Your Drives
This article describes a simple way to make the physical disk drives
mounted in your PC case look just like blank slots.
http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?articleid=12
FTP Error Codes Explained
OK, what's a 451? Discover the meaning of all those
strange 3 character FTP error codes here:
http://www.the-eggman.com/seminars/ftp_error_codes.html
Improve Your Google Searches
Many users are unaware that Google will search for synonyms of
a word if you prefix the term with the tilde character (~). For example
a search on "registry ~tips" will also search for advice, techniques, guides
and other synonyms for tips.
http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html
** Bonus Items for Supporters **
- How to get better tech support
- 50 ways to lose your data
- Cheap way to get HDTV
- How to stop Windows XP disk data corruption
5. FREEBIE OF THE WEEK
======================
Free Hotkey Utility
Everyone should own a keyboard management utility that allows you
to assign common tasks to particular key combinations. For example, I use
Ctrl F12 to run a little macro that counts the number of words in a selected
section of text. There are any number of commercial utilities that will
do the job but so will HotKeyz, and it's totally free for non commercial
use. It can re-assign existing shortcuts or create new ones based on simple
assignment or macro recording to any combination of keys including the
WIN, CTRL, ALT & SHIFT keys.(961KB)
http://www.skynergy.com/hotkeyz.html
** Bonus Freebie for Supporters **
Free High Performance Remote Control Software
This is a free client/server package that allows remote control
of another PC using a TCP/IP connection. It works with Windows W9x/NT/2K/XP
and offers all the features you need including auto-configuration, easy
user interface, extensive hotkeys and embedded file transfer. Apart from
the fact that it's free, its strong suite is its speed. It must be the
fastest remote control package I've ever used. Just the thing for
accessing your home PC while traveling, off-site troubleshooting or general
network administration.
Stop missing out on all this good stuff! Become a Supporter today and receive the SE Edition immediately..
GET THE SPECIAL SE EDITION OF THIS NEWSLETTER NOW!
==================================================
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
================
Thanks to the following volunteer reviewers for their efforts:
Daniel Rose (D.R.)
Annie Scrimshaw (A.S.) aka Annmarie at www.cybertechhelp.com
Jeff Partridge (J.P.)
Sheila Foss (S.F) aka PippieT
Reviews written by Annie, Daniel, Jeff and Sheila are indicated
by their initials at the end of the review.
Thanks too to A. Belile for proofreading this issue.
Content of this newsletter is (c) Copyright TechSupportAlert.com, 2003
See you next issue
Gizmo
Ian “Gizmo” Richards
editor@techsupportalert.com