Brought to you each week by
the 84 Online Team, a loose collection of volunteers from around the Kentuckiana
region.
84 Online is broadcast live
each Sunday from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT) on WHAS radio, 840 AM. You may call the show directly during
this time period at 502-571-8484 or toll free at 1-800-444-8484. You may also interact with the team
online by visiting www.84online.com and
clicking on Chat Room. IRC users
can access the room through server ucanweb.com, channel #84online. Chat hours match the show on Sunday and
generally some of the members are in weeknights from 8:00 to 9:00 PM
EDT.
Vol. 1, No.
17
8-8-01
Over the last few weeks every major news source in the country has carried pieces on the Code Red worm. If you haven’t heard of it you need to find a rock under which you’ll get better TV and radio reception.
Many “experts” predicted that the end of the Internet as we know it would
occur at 8:00 PM EDT on July 31st. Needless to say, that didn’t
happen. However this worm has
caused some serious headaches for thousands of people (more from Art on that
subject a little later).
84 Online Team member Nathan Roberts (doctorwho@tardislabs.com) explains
what the worm is and how it works:
“Code Red is a worm that
automatically spreads itself around the
Internet. It randomly selects
webservers running Microsoft's IIS and
infects them with itself. During
one week of the month, infected
servers will instigate a Denial-of-Service
attack on the
whitehouse.gov website.
what it
does:
> From
the 1st of the month (whatever the current month is) to the 19th, it'll randomly
infect other vulnerable machines on the Internet.
> From the 20th to
the 27th, it will attack the whitehouse.gov website
with a Denial-Of-Service
attack.
After the 27th, it dies. Forever. Never does anything
again. At least, that's the
theory. You see, the worm doesn't
really care what month it is. It only cares what day of the month it
is. If it sees the date is between the 1st
and the 20th, it starts
infecting other machines. If it sees the date is between the 20th and the
27th, it starts attacking sites. If it sees the date is after the 27th, it
goes to sleep and never wakes up, even after the date rolls over to the 1st of
the next month.
Effectively, it commits suicide.
Here's the snag. If all the
clocks in the world were set correctly, then the moment they all roll over to
the 27th, the worm goes Poof. But not all the
clocks in the world are
set correctly. Along comes an
infected server with an out-of-sync clock, which still thinks it's supposed to
be infecting machines. So when the
1st of the month rolls around, an out-of-sync machine starts going around
infecting (or re-infecting) correctly set machines.
The newly infected machines look at the clock and see that it's
the
1st and as far as it's concerned, it's Open Season. Then the cycle starts all over
again.”
While Code Red was grabbing all the headlines a much more damaging virus
“topped the charts” with nary a mention in the media. Sircam comes as an email attachment with
a double extension (like FridaySales.xls.pif or brooke.jpg.exe) and, once opened
will do the usual hijacking of your Windows address book but this time with a
twist. It sends random files from
your My Documents folder to people in your address book as well as any email
address found in your Temporary Internet Files folders.
Total strangers could receive confidential or classified documents (the
FBI was infected with it, among other government agencies) or embarrassing
information or pictures. Not a nice
thought.
Windows by default hides extra extensions so many people don’t know that
the .doc file in their Inbox is weird.
To force Outlook to show the entire file name open Windows Explorer. Click View from the text menu at the top
and click on Folder Options. Click
the View tab and look for a setting called “Hide file extensions for known file
types.” If it’s checked, uncheck
it. Click Apply and OK. Now anytime you receive an attachment
with a double extension you’ll know to delete the email and contact the sender
to let them know they’re infected with something.
Kevin Mefford,
Editor
Perhaps
the Most Important Free
Download
Many of you are probably already aware of this free download, but with the proliferation of the Code Red Worm and various other security problems being identified on a weekly (heck even daily) basis, I feel a refresher course is in order.
This free
download site is the Windows Update site.
It usually resides in your start menu at the very top of the column. Click on this entry and you are
transported to the Microsoft Windows Update site. Click on “Product Updates”, wait a
moment or two for the JAVA applet to load and scan your configuration. Then, a list of available updates to
your operating system will be displayed.
Listed first will be the “Critical Updates”. These are generally updates that deal
with security flaws and bugs in the OS, the browser and Outlook
Express.
Not sure if you
have already installed the recommended updates? Click on “Show Installed Updates” and
each update will be displayed with the notation "Already Installed”, if it has
been. Click on “Installation
History” and the status of each installed update will be displayed with its date
of installation.
For those of
you using Windows 2000 or Windows NT, I urge you to get the patch Microsoft has
provided for the Code Red Worm that is currently devastating the Internet. While this worm only infects systems
running the IIS server, it is important to note that the IIS server may have
been installed by default if you installed the NT operating system as an upgrade
over a Windows 9x installation.
I have been under attack
since 8pm Saturday night by over 500 separate computers that are infected with
the worm. Luckily, my hardware
firewall is not letting these probes get to my network, but the incessant probes
(around 5 per second) are noticeably slowing my broadband connection. While the owners of these offending
machines are probably unaware of this activity, in many cases, that is no excuse
for not applying the free patch from Microsoft. I have copied my firewall logs and
forwarded them to the providers so they can take action against those
subscribers. In most cases, this
will mean the cancellation or suspension of those subscribers’
accounts.
Please get your
updates at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
and also, keep your anti-virus programs updated.
Did you know
that America Online has a very active Macintosh community? Oh,
Yeah!
Try Keyword:
APPLE COMPUTER. There, you'll find the latest System Software updates, as well
as updated versions of Apple's printer drivers, and other software and
utilities. It's also the place for up to date Apple news and information,
plus chats with Mac users.
Then try Keyword:
MACINTOSH. You’ll find Chat schedules, Bulletin Boards, Home Pages info, and be
sure to check out the Features tab for updates, help tips, speeding up your
system, and much, much more. Be sure to check it
out.
Join
the Mac chats, browse the Boards, and discover a treasure trove of goodies for
your Mac!
ActiveX:
ActiveX is an integration technology that activates a web page with
interactive objects including multi-media effects, audio, video and virtual
reality. Web content is dynamic, creating a customized experience for the
web page visitor, depending on their choices.
Q: In listening to your broadcast several
times, I found out that you might be willing to offer some suggestions to a
novice computer user who at this point is totally in the dark about why my
computer is running so slowly.
I have a
Gateway, Pentium II, with 64MB of RAM, which we purchased in 1998. It runs
Windows 98. I use it primarily for email and research on the Internet.
When it began to connect to everything very slowly and also to perform other
tasks slowly, I began to try to find a solution on my own. I did a
defragmentation (of the hard drive) according to my book instructions, but that
didn't seem to help.
When I checked the properties
(under "My computer"), I found a listing under my C drive of the
following: 9.41GB...1.79GB free. It also showed a pie chart, which looked
like almost all of it was used up. I wasn't sure what the difference was in
memory. Why does one figure list memory as 64MB (with 73% free) and
another as 9.41GB (with 1.79GB free)? Maybe if you could help me figure out what
I am looking at when I see these numbers, I could get on to the road to getting
the maximum benefits from my computer.
Thanks in
advance for any help you can give me. Also, if you can direct me toward
finding something that would help me understand more about files and folders
(especially temporary files), I will be forever grateful!
Lost in a world
of frustration,
A Loyal
Listener.
A: First of all, you've got "memory" and
"hard drive space" confused as being the same thing. They are
not.
Hard
drive space (that is what you see listed as being 1.79Gb free, with a total of
11.2Gb) is the space you have for installing software programs. Things like
Windows (the operating system), games, financial software, and Microsoft Office
are examples of software that take up hard drive space. You can look at hard
drive space as empty library shelves. As you begin to add books to the selves,
the empty shelf space begins to decrease. Once you have filled every shelf with
books, you must either build a bigger library (get a bigger hard drive), or make
room on the shelves (delete some programs or files) in order to add more books.
In this example, the shelves represent the hard drive space in your computer,
and the books represent the software on your hard
drive.
Now
for memory. This is somewhat technical but I'm going to over simplify my
explanation. When you ask your computer to do something (like open your e-mail
program or defragment the hard drive), it must go get the instructions on how to
do so. These instructions are located on the hard drive. Once these instructions
are retrieved from the hard drive, they must be laid out so that they can be
read by the microprocessor (which is the brain of the computer, executing every
action that your computer performs, rated in megahertz, which describes how fast
it is). The area that these instructions are laid out on is called RAM (Random
Access Memory). It's like a chalkboard that the processor uses to write the
instructions for whatever action it is about to execute.
Now just like in grade
school, chalkboards come in various sizes. So does RAM. When your teacher was
writing notes on the chalk board and ran out of room, he or she would erase some
or all of the board before continuing to add more notes (duh). The processor
does the same thing with RAM.
Let's say for example
that you have 2 megabytes of RAM. You ask you computer to open your e-mail
program. The instructions that are located on the hard drive which explain to
the processor how to complete this task are 4 megabytes in size. Thus, by using
simple subtraction, we can see that the instructions are 2 times the amount of
RAM that you have (2 megabytes). So, the processor will load half of the
instruction into RAM (the chalkboard), read that half, erase it, then go get the
other half of the instruction, load that into RAM, read it, and then begin to
open your e-mail program.
Light bulbs should be
coming on in your head by now. If they're not, go back and read this again until
they do.
The
last paragraph should now help you to understand that if the processor can load
all of the instructions into RAM with one pass, then the processor can begin to
carry out whatever task you have asked it to do faster. If the processor has to
keep "erasing the chalkboard", you'll end up falling asleep before your computer
ever gets anything done. Now you understand why more RAM makes your computer
faster.
Another thing about RAM. When you open an application such as e-mail or a game
it takes up a little space in RAM while it is running. When you close that
application, it’s supposed to release the RAM it was using but Microsoft hasn’t
perfected that concept yet. Also, anything that automatically starts when you
start your computer takes up a little space in RAM. The more "stuff" you have
open or automatically starting the less "chalkboard" your processor has to work
with. Also, all of these "things" that are running and starting take up a slice
of the processors time. If you open enough stuff or have too much stuff starting
when you start your computer, your computer's "resources" (that's what you saw
as 73% free which are your RAM and processor ability to do anything) will be
sucked dry leaving you with a slow operating computer. After all, we as humans
cannot be expected to do 12 million things at once and be efficient. Neither can
a home user's computer. Now if you dump enough cash into your computer, you can
contact Martians while watching a bootleg copy of War & Peace). But hey,
that's a different e-mail all together.
You can control how
much stuff is starting with your computer. I would bet my next paycheck that
your system tray (that's the area down at the bottom right of your screen
showing the time) is occupied by a boatload of icons. THIS IS NOT GOOD! This is
one reason why your computer runs so slow.
By now, you should be
either asleep or intrigued. You would make a good candidate for my beginning
computer class. I'll stop here and wait to hear your response but I hope this
answers your questions. If not, write back. I promise not to write another
novel!
A.J. Johnson
dajunkman@home.com
Editors
note: While we usually try to avoid
commercialization of the newsletter, AJ and Matt Mercurio do offer classes
ranging from Basic to Advanced Windows and Internet usage for a pretty good
price. They feature hands on
training with small class sizes and actually know what they’re talking about
(unlike many “instructors” offering training). I’ll let AJ get away with it… this time
;) If interested you can email AJ at the above address or call him
at (502)
500-3806.
If you have tech support
questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please email them to bob@iglou.com .
Copyright 2001, The 84
Online Team. All rights
reserved. Publication, rebroadcast
or storage is prohibited without prior consent, however you may freely forward
this publication to friends as long as A) it is forwarded in its entirety and B)
no fee is charged.
Information provided in this
publication is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed
or implied. Although the
information provided is known to work on most systems, it may not work on ALL
systems. Make use of any
information supplied at your own risk.
The 84 Online Team is a
group of volunteers who provide support for the 84 Online radio broadcast. Team members are not directly affiliated
with nor employed by Clear Channel Communications or WHAS. Views and opinions voiced in this
publication do not necessarily reflect the views held by Clear Channel or
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