This is a good summary of the steps we should be taking to fight the onslaught of viruses, trojans , spyware etc. that threaten our computing experience.
Cyber-Security: Tips For Safe Computing
We originally wrote this computer security "how-to" nearly three years ago, but experts are still doling out the same advice. We've added a few new tips, focusing mainly on spyware and the importance of backing up your data. Follow these simple instructions and dramatically decrease the likelihood that you will run into serious security problems online.
1. Install and use a firewall. Considered the first and last line of defense, a firewall is a software program or piece of hardware that prevents unauthorized Internet traffic from entering or leaving your computer, particularly computers that are always left connected to the Internet (typically, Internet users who connect over DSL or cable modem fit this category). Properly configured, a firewall can give you greater control over your computer and prevent attackers from successfully scanning your system to learn details about potential weaknesses on your network or PC.
For a sobering look at the insecurity in the average operating system, consider the research conducted by The Honeynet Project. The project takes servers and computers "out-of-the-box" -- without any changes to improve or reduce their security -- and connects them to the Internet for the sole purpose of seeing how often they are probed and hacked, and what techniques attackers are using.
Based on the project's tests, the average unprotected Windows computer with the most common security holes will be hacked within 20 minutes. Even secured computers will be probed or scanned for known vulnerabilities dozens times each day. It's nothing personal, said Honeynet Project founder Lance Spitzner. "The vast majority of attacks on the Net today are launched by people out to break into as many computers as possible," he said.
Using automated software tools available online, a malicious hacker can set in motion a scan of more than a million computers before he goes to bed at night and have hundreds of systems under his thumb by morning, Spitzner said.
"It's not so much people not realizing they're vulnerable than it is they don't believe they're a target," he said. "The fact is, anybody can be a target."
The reasons attackers would want to break into your machine are as varied as the methods for doing so. Computer criminals often use other peoples' PCs for storing files that would be incriminating if found on their own machines, such as child pornography or lists of stolen credit card numbers. More frequently, criminals hijack computers for financial gain or as a means of attacking others with impunity.
2. Use anti-virus software and update virus definitions regularly.
Most new computers come equipped with anti-virus software already installed, but that software requires regular updates that tell the program how to identify the latest threats. In most cases, antivirus program installed on new PCs only provides the user updates for less than 90 days, so it's important to renew your subscription at that point or install a different anti-virus program.
Once executed on a vulnerable computer, most viruses transmit copies of themselves to all of names in the victim's e-mail address book. As a result, people who don't use antivirus software or allow their virus definitions to expire are putting their friends, co-workers and loved ones in the line of fire.
If you have put off using anti-virus because you don't want to pay for it, there are several free and very good anti-virus programs available -- see the links to the right.
3. Create secure, original passwords. Creating unique passwords is one of the easiest ways for consumers to ensure their privacy and security online. See our password primer for tips.
4. Update your computer(s) with the latest vendor security patches. Fully 95 percent of all network intrusions can be avoided by keeping computer systems updated with the latest vendor patches, according to the CERT Coordination Center's Software Engineering Group, a government-funded computer security watchdog group at Carnegie Mellon University.
Visit www.uscert.gov for a comprehensive list of security alerts and vendor patches. Windows users can go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com to install the latest updates. Using Microsoft's automatic update notification service, users can get updates when they are released. Windows XP users can configure updates to install automatically.
If you don't know how to enable automatic updates from Microsoft, visit the company's tutorial.
5. Practice basic e-mail and downloading "street smarts." Most viruses are transmitted as e-mail attachments. Some may come from people you know; others will enter your inbox bearing enticing subject lines. Either way, users should be wary of opening all attachments, and scan each one with antivirus software before opening them.
Avoid opening e-mail attachments that contain ".vbs," ".scr," ".exe," or ".pif" file extensions. Files that end in these extensions are most likely to contain some sort of virus.
Also, it's a good idea to avoid clicking on Web links in e-mails if you are unsure of their origin. Plenty of bad things transmit themselves just by convincing users to visit malicious Web sites.
People who use "peer-to-peer" file-sharing networks such as Kazaa, eDonkey, and Bittorrent place themselves at a particularly high risk, especially when downloading "executable" programs, experts say.
Such nasties include "Trojan horse" programs that allow attackers to control your computer from afar, and keystroke loggers, which can record everything you type on your keyboard, including passwords and bank account numbers.
P2P users also should take care to limit the directories they share. It is not uncommon for users who rush through the process for installing programs that run those services to end up sharing the contents of their entire hard drive.
6. Download and use anti-spyware software.
Browse the Internet long enough and your PC will inevitably be infested with some form of spyware or adware, programs that sneak their way onto your machine by exploiting programming tricks, software flaws, or by piggybacking on "free" software packages. Regardless of how it gets on your machine, spyware and adware can slow your computer to a crawl, sap your Internet connection and snoop on your Web browsing activities.
Two very handy programs for ridding your PC of these pests are free: Lavasoft's AdAware, and SpyBot Search & Destroy. It's a good idea to run them both periodically -- just not at the same time -- and it's generally safe to delete whatever they find.
7. Periodically back up your data. You never know what you've got until it's gone. Don't wait until disaster strikes to think about backing up all those photos, documents, e-mails and other valuable personal data. Check out our primer on backing up your data.
Other Resources:
The following is a list of resources to help educate consumers, teachers, parents and their children about ways to ensure their privacy and security online.
* Staysafeonline : A comprehensive cyber-security education site sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance, a group run by some of the nation's largest information technology and Internet companies.
* Cybercitizenship: a nonprofit group that's developing a national curriculum on "cyberethics" for educators. See also www.netsmartz.org.
* Safe at Any Speed: The Federal Trade Commission sponsors the broadband safety initiative.
* Shields Up!: To find out how just how vulnerable your system is, check out this site created by home user security guru Steve Gibson. With your approval, the system will probe your computer for common holes and vulnerabilities.
-- Compiled by Brian Krebs.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Google's Goodies
Google is offering some nice new free products.
August 25, 2005
Google Gets Better. What's Up With That?
EVER heard the old joke about the two psychiatrists who pass in a hallway? One says, "Hello there." The other thinks, "I wonder what he meant by that?"
In high-tech circles, that's pretty much what people are saying about Google these days. If you hadn't noticed, Google is no longer just an Internet search tool; it's now a full-blown software company. It develops elegant, efficient software programs - and then gives them away. In today's culture of cynicism, such generosity and software excellence seems highly suspicious; surely it's all a smokescreen for a darker, larger plot to suck us all in. What, exactly, is Google up to?
The mystery only intensified this week, as Google announced two more free software tools for Windows: a new version of Google Desktop Search and a free instant-messaging program called Google Talk.
The original version of Desktop Search, which Google unleashed last fall, brought the speed and effortlessness of Google's Internet search to your own PC. You'd type a few letters, and in a fraction of a second, you'd be looking at a complete list of files that included your search term - even if that term appeared inside the body of a document. It could even search e-mail, chat-session transcripts and the contents of Web pages you'd seen.
Google Desktop 1.0 certainly blew away Windows' own built-in search tool, which operates with all the speed of an anesthetized slug. But it was limited in three ways.
First, you had to operate it from within your Web browser, limiting its convenience. Second, because it could call up Web pages, e-mail messages and chat transcripts, Google Desktop alarmed people who, ahem, had something to hide from bosses or spouses. And finally, it could see inside only a limited number of document types. For example, it couldn't search PDF files, Web sites visited with any browser except Internet Explorer, or e-mail messages except those in Outlook or Outlook Express.
VERSION 2 , now available at google.com in what's technically in a public beta test version, attacks all of these drawbacks with a vengeance. In Version 2, you can begin a search with a keystroke or by clicking in the search box that's always on the screen. A pop-up menu of search results appears as you begin to type and narrows itself with each additional keystroke. When you see the item you want, you can open it by clicking or by walking up the list with the arrow keys and pressing Enter.
In other words, you can now find and open a certain program, document or control panel entirely from the keyboard, with blazing speed and simplicity. This is old news to Mac fans, of course; the Spotlight feature in Mac OS X 10.4 works the same way. But for Windows XP and 2000 veterans, getting such an omniscient, speedy search feature free is truly liberating. ( Microsoft plans something similar for the next version of Windows, due at the end of 2006.)
Google has also beefed up your privacy options. You can omit search categories like secure Web sites (banking sites, for example), password-protected Microsoft Office files, and so on, and you can even flag individual files so that they'll never appear in the search results again.
Finally, the program now recognizes many more document types: e-mail from Gmail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, Thunderbird and Mozilla Mail; chat transcripts from AOL or MSN Messenger; Web pages you've visited using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape or Mozilla; PDF files; and your Outlook calendar and address book. (And speaking of Outlook, Google Desktop now installs its own search bar right into Outlook, meaning that you can search your e-mail collection in the blink of a cursor.) The company expects to add more kinds of files to this list, thanks to a public plug-in protocol it has published online.
Yet believe it or not, the little search box is the last thing you'll notice when you install Google Desktop. The first thing you'll see is the Sidebar, a column of rectangular panels hugging the right edge of your screen. Each is a window onto a different kind of real-time information from the Internet.
Some are ho-hum, like your latest incoming Gmail and Outlook e-mail, news, stock and weather tickers. Others are refreshingly quirky: the Photos panel shows a continuous, two-inch-tall slideshow of pictures from your own collection, and the surprisingly useful Scratch Pad is a blank box where you can type casual notes throughout your workday (they're saved automatically). Each panel expands horizontally, drawer-like, to reveal more details when clicked.
The Sidebar is about as clean-looking as anyone could make it, but it's still a lot of clutter in a very small space, especially if you add new panels as they become available. On the other hand, you can tidy things up quite a bit: drag your Sidebar panels into a different order, hide the ones you don't use, or collapse them into one-line summaries.
Once again, Google isn't the first company to dream up a modular, Internet-connected suite of miniprograms; the Sidebar is a lot like Mac OS X's Dashboard or the shareware programs Desktop X and Konfabulator. But never mind that; you can't keep a good idea down, and this is a good one indeed.
Google's second revelation this week, Google Talk, lets you communicate with your buddies either by typing or, if your PC has a microphone and speaker, by speaking. As long as you and your conversation partner are at Windows computers, you can converse with spectacular sound quality.
Now, Google Talk 1.0 is probably the most stripped-down chat program on earth. No conference calling, video chats or direct person-to-person file transfers. (Features like these are common in rivals like Skype, iChat and the messenger programs from AOL, MSN and Yahoo.) So what, exactly, is Google trying to prove here?
Its mission, in fact, is far grander. Google Talk aims to end the ridiculous era of proprietary chat networks. At the moment, AOL, MSN and Yahoo each maintain separate, incompatible networks. The big boys each want to be alone in the sandbox, and the losers are their customers.
Google Talk, however, is based on an open, published standard that the company is making available to all. Already, Google Talk communicates with popular chat programs like iChat, Trillian, Adium, Psi and GAIM, but that's just the beginning. Google is making overtures to Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft about making their chat programs compatible; EarthLink has already agreed to join the federation; and Google is also inviting the makers of games, collaboration tools and even cellphones to join in what it hopes will one day be a grand, unified chat network.
In the meantime, Google Talk is significant for another reason: it requires a Gmail account. (Gmail is Google's free, Web-based e-mail service, whose two most famous aspects are its vast capacity - over two gigabytes of storage for each account - and the ads that appear, in small type, off to the right side of each message you read. The ads are computer-matched to keywords in the body of the message, which disturbs some privacy advocates.)
Until now, Gmail accounts were available by invitation only. Google let the service spread gradually and virally, giving each existing member a few additional invitations to extend. At one point, people were actually selling these invitations on eBay.
As of yesterday, however, all that has changed. Now anyone can get a Gmail account - and can therefore use Google Talk. But to prevent spammers and other abusers from snapping up Gmail accounts by the thousands, Google has designed a clever safeguard: when you apply for a Gmail account, you must provide a cellphone number.
Google sends a code to your phone, which you use to complete the registration. (Actually, you don't have to own a cellphone; you just have to know somebody with a cellphone. They can get the code for you, because each cellphone number is good for a number of registrations - just not hundreds of them.)
In a single week, then, Google, the software company, addressed deficiencies in Windows, tried to create a grand unified chat and voice network, and opened its clean, capable, capacious e-mail system to all comers. All of this software is beautifully done, quick to download and fun to use - not to mention free and (apart from the Gmail service) entirely free of ads and come-ons.
Wish they'd cut it out. Trying to figure out what this company's really up to is enough to drive you crazy.
August 25, 2005
Google Gets Better. What's Up With That?
EVER heard the old joke about the two psychiatrists who pass in a hallway? One says, "Hello there." The other thinks, "I wonder what he meant by that?"
In high-tech circles, that's pretty much what people are saying about Google these days. If you hadn't noticed, Google is no longer just an Internet search tool; it's now a full-blown software company. It develops elegant, efficient software programs - and then gives them away. In today's culture of cynicism, such generosity and software excellence seems highly suspicious; surely it's all a smokescreen for a darker, larger plot to suck us all in. What, exactly, is Google up to?
The mystery only intensified this week, as Google announced two more free software tools for Windows: a new version of Google Desktop Search and a free instant-messaging program called Google Talk.
The original version of Desktop Search, which Google unleashed last fall, brought the speed and effortlessness of Google's Internet search to your own PC. You'd type a few letters, and in a fraction of a second, you'd be looking at a complete list of files that included your search term - even if that term appeared inside the body of a document. It could even search e-mail, chat-session transcripts and the contents of Web pages you'd seen.
Google Desktop 1.0 certainly blew away Windows' own built-in search tool, which operates with all the speed of an anesthetized slug. But it was limited in three ways.
First, you had to operate it from within your Web browser, limiting its convenience. Second, because it could call up Web pages, e-mail messages and chat transcripts, Google Desktop alarmed people who, ahem, had something to hide from bosses or spouses. And finally, it could see inside only a limited number of document types. For example, it couldn't search PDF files, Web sites visited with any browser except Internet Explorer, or e-mail messages except those in Outlook or Outlook Express.
VERSION 2 , now available at google.com in what's technically in a public beta test version, attacks all of these drawbacks with a vengeance. In Version 2, you can begin a search with a keystroke or by clicking in the search box that's always on the screen. A pop-up menu of search results appears as you begin to type and narrows itself with each additional keystroke. When you see the item you want, you can open it by clicking or by walking up the list with the arrow keys and pressing Enter.
In other words, you can now find and open a certain program, document or control panel entirely from the keyboard, with blazing speed and simplicity. This is old news to Mac fans, of course; the Spotlight feature in Mac OS X 10.4 works the same way. But for Windows XP and 2000 veterans, getting such an omniscient, speedy search feature free is truly liberating. ( Microsoft plans something similar for the next version of Windows, due at the end of 2006.)
Google has also beefed up your privacy options. You can omit search categories like secure Web sites (banking sites, for example), password-protected Microsoft Office files, and so on, and you can even flag individual files so that they'll never appear in the search results again.
Finally, the program now recognizes many more document types: e-mail from Gmail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, Thunderbird and Mozilla Mail; chat transcripts from AOL or MSN Messenger; Web pages you've visited using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape or Mozilla; PDF files; and your Outlook calendar and address book. (And speaking of Outlook, Google Desktop now installs its own search bar right into Outlook, meaning that you can search your e-mail collection in the blink of a cursor.) The company expects to add more kinds of files to this list, thanks to a public plug-in protocol it has published online.
Yet believe it or not, the little search box is the last thing you'll notice when you install Google Desktop. The first thing you'll see is the Sidebar, a column of rectangular panels hugging the right edge of your screen. Each is a window onto a different kind of real-time information from the Internet.
Some are ho-hum, like your latest incoming Gmail and Outlook e-mail, news, stock and weather tickers. Others are refreshingly quirky: the Photos panel shows a continuous, two-inch-tall slideshow of pictures from your own collection, and the surprisingly useful Scratch Pad is a blank box where you can type casual notes throughout your workday (they're saved automatically). Each panel expands horizontally, drawer-like, to reveal more details when clicked.
The Sidebar is about as clean-looking as anyone could make it, but it's still a lot of clutter in a very small space, especially if you add new panels as they become available. On the other hand, you can tidy things up quite a bit: drag your Sidebar panels into a different order, hide the ones you don't use, or collapse them into one-line summaries.
Once again, Google isn't the first company to dream up a modular, Internet-connected suite of miniprograms; the Sidebar is a lot like Mac OS X's Dashboard or the shareware programs Desktop X and Konfabulator. But never mind that; you can't keep a good idea down, and this is a good one indeed.
Google's second revelation this week, Google Talk, lets you communicate with your buddies either by typing or, if your PC has a microphone and speaker, by speaking. As long as you and your conversation partner are at Windows computers, you can converse with spectacular sound quality.
Now, Google Talk 1.0 is probably the most stripped-down chat program on earth. No conference calling, video chats or direct person-to-person file transfers. (Features like these are common in rivals like Skype, iChat and the messenger programs from AOL, MSN and Yahoo.) So what, exactly, is Google trying to prove here?
Its mission, in fact, is far grander. Google Talk aims to end the ridiculous era of proprietary chat networks. At the moment, AOL, MSN and Yahoo each maintain separate, incompatible networks. The big boys each want to be alone in the sandbox, and the losers are their customers.
Google Talk, however, is based on an open, published standard that the company is making available to all. Already, Google Talk communicates with popular chat programs like iChat, Trillian, Adium, Psi and GAIM, but that's just the beginning. Google is making overtures to Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft about making their chat programs compatible; EarthLink has already agreed to join the federation; and Google is also inviting the makers of games, collaboration tools and even cellphones to join in what it hopes will one day be a grand, unified chat network.
In the meantime, Google Talk is significant for another reason: it requires a Gmail account. (Gmail is Google's free, Web-based e-mail service, whose two most famous aspects are its vast capacity - over two gigabytes of storage for each account - and the ads that appear, in small type, off to the right side of each message you read. The ads are computer-matched to keywords in the body of the message, which disturbs some privacy advocates.)
Until now, Gmail accounts were available by invitation only. Google let the service spread gradually and virally, giving each existing member a few additional invitations to extend. At one point, people were actually selling these invitations on eBay.
As of yesterday, however, all that has changed. Now anyone can get a Gmail account - and can therefore use Google Talk. But to prevent spammers and other abusers from snapping up Gmail accounts by the thousands, Google has designed a clever safeguard: when you apply for a Gmail account, you must provide a cellphone number.
Google sends a code to your phone, which you use to complete the registration. (Actually, you don't have to own a cellphone; you just have to know somebody with a cellphone. They can get the code for you, because each cellphone number is good for a number of registrations - just not hundreds of them.)
In a single week, then, Google, the software company, addressed deficiencies in Windows, tried to create a grand unified chat and voice network, and opened its clean, capable, capacious e-mail system to all comers. All of this software is beautifully done, quick to download and fun to use - not to mention free and (apart from the Gmail service) entirely free of ads and come-ons.
Wish they'd cut it out. Trying to figure out what this company's really up to is enough to drive you crazy.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Fed Up With Your PC's Problems? Throw It Away
I had previously posted an article that noted how users, fed up with spy ware, viruses etc. were giving up on their PC's. Now, according to the New York Times, the disgusted users are buying new cheap PC's rather than trying to fix infected machines.
July 17, 2005
Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster
By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF
SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 - Add personal computers to the list of throwaways in the disposable society.
On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer.
Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.
He is not alone in his surrender in the face of growing legions of digital pests, not only adware and spyware but computer viruses and other Internet-borne infections as well. Many PC owners are simply replacing embattled machines rather than fixing them.
"I was spending time every week trying to keep the machine free of viruses and worms," said Mr. Tucker, a vice president of Salesforce.com, a Web services firm based here. "I was losing the battle. It was cheaper and faster to go to the store and buy a low-end PC."
In the face of a constant stream of pop-up ads, malfunctioning programs and performance slowed to a crawl or a crash - the hallmarks of spyware and adware - throwing out a computer "is a rational response," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a Washington-based research group that studies the Internet's social impact.
While no figures are available on the ranks of those jettisoning their PC's, the scourge of unwanted software is widely felt. This month the Pew group published a study in which 43 percent of the 2,001 adult Internet users polled said they had been confronted with spyware or adware, collectively known as malware. Forty-eight percent said they had stopped visiting Web sites that might deposit unwanted programs on their PC's.
Moreover, 68 percent said they had had computer trouble in the last year consistent with the problems caused by spyware or adware, though 60 percent of those were unsure of the problems' origins. Twenty percent of those who tried to fix the problem said it had not been solved; among those who spent money seeking a remedy, the average outlay was $129.
By comparison, it is possible to buy a new computer, including a monitor, for less than $500, though more powerful systems can cost considerably more.
Meantime, the threats from infection continue to rise, and "the arms race seems to have tilted toward the bad guys," Mr. Rainie said.
The number of viruses has more than doubled in just the last six months, while the number of adware and spyware programs has roughly quadrupled during the same period, said Vincent Weafer, a senior director at Symantec, which makes the Norton computer security programs. One reason for the explosion, Symantec executives say, is the growth of high-speed Internet access, which allows people to stay connected to the Internet constantly but creates more opportunity for malicious programs to find their way onto machines.
Mr. Weafer said an area of particular concern was infections adept at burying themselves in a computer system so that the cleansing programs had trouble finding them. The removal of these programs must often be done manually, requiring greater technical expertise.
There are methods of protecting computers from infection through antivirus and spyware-removal software and digital barriers called firewalls, but those tools are far from being completely effective.
"Things are spinning out of control," said David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale.
Mr. Gelernter said his own family's computer became so badly infected that he bought a new one this week. He said his two teenage sons were balking at spending the hours needed to scrub the old one clean of viruses, worms and adware.
Mr. Gelernter blames the software industry for the morass, noting that people are increasingly unwilling to take out their "software tweezers" to clean their machines.
Microsoft executives say they decided to enter the anti-spyware business earlier this year after realizing the extent of the problem.
"We saw that a significant percentage of crashes and other problems were being caused by this," said Paul Bryan, an executive in the company's security business unit. Windows XP Service Pack 2, an upgrade to the latest Windows operating system that has been distributed to more than 200 million computers, includes an automated malware removal program that has been used 800 million times this year, he said.
At least another 10 million copies of a test version of the company's spyware removal program have been downloaded. Yet Microsoft executives acknowledged that they were not providing protection for people who have earlier versions of the company's operating system. And that provides little comfort for those who must navigate the perils of cyberspace.
Terrelea Wong's old computer now sits beside her sofa in the living room, unused, except as a makeshift table that holds a box of tissues.
Ms. Wong, a physician at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in South San Francisco, started getting a relentless stream of pop-up ads a year ago on her four-year-old Hewlett-Packard desktop computer. Often her entire screen would turn blue and urge her to "hit any key to continue." Sometimes the computer would freeze altogether.
After putting up with the problem for months, Ms. Wong said she decided last November that rather than fix her PC, she would buy a new one. Succumbing to the seduction of all the new bells and whistles, she spent $3,000 on a new Apple laptop.
She is instituting new rules to keep her home computer virus-free.
"I've modified my behavior. I'm not letting my friends borrow my computer," she said, after speculating that the indiscriminate use of the Internet by her and her friends had led to the infection problems.
Peter Randol, 45, a stockbroker for Charles Schwab in Denver, is at his wits' end, too. His family's four-year-old Dell computer has not been the same since last year when they got a digital subscriber line for high-speed Internet access. Mr. Randol said the PC's performance has slowed, a result he attributes to dozens of malicious programs he has discovered on the computer.
He has eliminated some of the programs, but error messages continue to pop up on his screen, and the computer can be agonizingly slow.
"I may have no choice but to buy a new one," he said, noting that he hopes that by starting over, he can get a computer that will be more impervious to infection.
Buying a new computer is not always an antidote. Bora Ozturk, 33, who manages bank branches in San Francisco, bought a $900 Hewlett-Packard computer last year only to have it nearly paralyzed three months ago with infections that he believes he got from visiting Turkish news sites.
He debated throwing the PC out, but it had pictures of his newborn son and all of his music files. He decided to fix it himself, spending 15 hours learning what to do, then saving all his pictures and music to a disk and then wiping the hard drive clean - the equivalent of starting over.
For his part, Mr. Tucker, the Salesforce.com executive, said the first piece of software he installed on the new machine two weeks ago was antivirus software. He does not want a replay of his frustrations the last month, when the attacks on his old machine became relentless.
"It came down to the simple human fact that maintaining the old computer didn't pay," he said.
July 17, 2005
Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster
By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF
SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 - Add personal computers to the list of throwaways in the disposable society.
On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer.
Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.
He is not alone in his surrender in the face of growing legions of digital pests, not only adware and spyware but computer viruses and other Internet-borne infections as well. Many PC owners are simply replacing embattled machines rather than fixing them.
"I was spending time every week trying to keep the machine free of viruses and worms," said Mr. Tucker, a vice president of Salesforce.com, a Web services firm based here. "I was losing the battle. It was cheaper and faster to go to the store and buy a low-end PC."
In the face of a constant stream of pop-up ads, malfunctioning programs and performance slowed to a crawl or a crash - the hallmarks of spyware and adware - throwing out a computer "is a rational response," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a Washington-based research group that studies the Internet's social impact.
While no figures are available on the ranks of those jettisoning their PC's, the scourge of unwanted software is widely felt. This month the Pew group published a study in which 43 percent of the 2,001 adult Internet users polled said they had been confronted with spyware or adware, collectively known as malware. Forty-eight percent said they had stopped visiting Web sites that might deposit unwanted programs on their PC's.
Moreover, 68 percent said they had had computer trouble in the last year consistent with the problems caused by spyware or adware, though 60 percent of those were unsure of the problems' origins. Twenty percent of those who tried to fix the problem said it had not been solved; among those who spent money seeking a remedy, the average outlay was $129.
By comparison, it is possible to buy a new computer, including a monitor, for less than $500, though more powerful systems can cost considerably more.
Meantime, the threats from infection continue to rise, and "the arms race seems to have tilted toward the bad guys," Mr. Rainie said.
The number of viruses has more than doubled in just the last six months, while the number of adware and spyware programs has roughly quadrupled during the same period, said Vincent Weafer, a senior director at Symantec, which makes the Norton computer security programs. One reason for the explosion, Symantec executives say, is the growth of high-speed Internet access, which allows people to stay connected to the Internet constantly but creates more opportunity for malicious programs to find their way onto machines.
Mr. Weafer said an area of particular concern was infections adept at burying themselves in a computer system so that the cleansing programs had trouble finding them. The removal of these programs must often be done manually, requiring greater technical expertise.
There are methods of protecting computers from infection through antivirus and spyware-removal software and digital barriers called firewalls, but those tools are far from being completely effective.
"Things are spinning out of control," said David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale.
Mr. Gelernter said his own family's computer became so badly infected that he bought a new one this week. He said his two teenage sons were balking at spending the hours needed to scrub the old one clean of viruses, worms and adware.
Mr. Gelernter blames the software industry for the morass, noting that people are increasingly unwilling to take out their "software tweezers" to clean their machines.
Microsoft executives say they decided to enter the anti-spyware business earlier this year after realizing the extent of the problem.
"We saw that a significant percentage of crashes and other problems were being caused by this," said Paul Bryan, an executive in the company's security business unit. Windows XP Service Pack 2, an upgrade to the latest Windows operating system that has been distributed to more than 200 million computers, includes an automated malware removal program that has been used 800 million times this year, he said.
At least another 10 million copies of a test version of the company's spyware removal program have been downloaded. Yet Microsoft executives acknowledged that they were not providing protection for people who have earlier versions of the company's operating system. And that provides little comfort for those who must navigate the perils of cyberspace.
Terrelea Wong's old computer now sits beside her sofa in the living room, unused, except as a makeshift table that holds a box of tissues.
Ms. Wong, a physician at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in South San Francisco, started getting a relentless stream of pop-up ads a year ago on her four-year-old Hewlett-Packard desktop computer. Often her entire screen would turn blue and urge her to "hit any key to continue." Sometimes the computer would freeze altogether.
After putting up with the problem for months, Ms. Wong said she decided last November that rather than fix her PC, she would buy a new one. Succumbing to the seduction of all the new bells and whistles, she spent $3,000 on a new Apple laptop.
She is instituting new rules to keep her home computer virus-free.
"I've modified my behavior. I'm not letting my friends borrow my computer," she said, after speculating that the indiscriminate use of the Internet by her and her friends had led to the infection problems.
Peter Randol, 45, a stockbroker for Charles Schwab in Denver, is at his wits' end, too. His family's four-year-old Dell computer has not been the same since last year when they got a digital subscriber line for high-speed Internet access. Mr. Randol said the PC's performance has slowed, a result he attributes to dozens of malicious programs he has discovered on the computer.
He has eliminated some of the programs, but error messages continue to pop up on his screen, and the computer can be agonizingly slow.
"I may have no choice but to buy a new one," he said, noting that he hopes that by starting over, he can get a computer that will be more impervious to infection.
Buying a new computer is not always an antidote. Bora Ozturk, 33, who manages bank branches in San Francisco, bought a $900 Hewlett-Packard computer last year only to have it nearly paralyzed three months ago with infections that he believes he got from visiting Turkish news sites.
He debated throwing the PC out, but it had pictures of his newborn son and all of his music files. He decided to fix it himself, spending 15 hours learning what to do, then saving all his pictures and music to a disk and then wiping the hard drive clean - the equivalent of starting over.
For his part, Mr. Tucker, the Salesforce.com executive, said the first piece of software he installed on the new machine two weeks ago was antivirus software. He does not want a replay of his frustrations the last month, when the attacks on his old machine became relentless.
"It came down to the simple human fact that maintaining the old computer didn't pay," he said.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Dealing with Cookies
Walter Mossberg's article is an "Everything You Want To Know About Cookies" type of piece and I highly recommend that you read it.
Despite Others' Claims,
Tracking Cookies Fit
My Spyware Definition
July 14, 2005; (Wall Street Journal Online)
Suppose you bought a TV set that included a component to track what you watched, and then reported that data back to a company that used or sold it for advertising purposes. Only nobody told you the tracking technology was there or asked your permission to use it.
You would likely be outraged at this violation of privacy. Yet that kind of Big Brother intrusion goes on every day on the Internet, affecting millions of people. Many Web sites, even from respectable companies, place a secret computer file called a "tracking cookie" on your hard disk. This file records where you go on the Web on behalf of Internet advertising companies that later use the information for their own business purposes. In almost all cases, the user isn't notified of the download of the tracking cookie, let alone asked for permission to install it.
Luckily, the leading Windows antispyware programs can detect and remove these tracking cookies. It is the best defense a user has against this tactic.
Now, though, some of the companies that place these files on your hard disk are complaining about that defense. Some are urging the antispyware software companies to stop detecting and removing tracking cookies. They assert that the secret placement of these tracking mechanisms is a legitimate business practice, and that tracking cookies aren't really spyware or aren't harmful.
Unfortunately for consumers, this twisted reasoning is having some impact. In the most notable case, Microsoft disabled the detection and removal of tracking cookies when it purchased an antispyware program from a small company called Giant and turned it into Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware. That is a big reason why I can't recommend the Microsoft product, which still is in the test phase but is available for anyone to download.
Microsoft says it still is evaluating how to treat tracking cookies in the program's final release. I believe it is important for consumers to know who is on their side right from the start and who may be being swayed by companies that do things to your computer without telling you.
The antispyware program I currently use and recommend, Spy Sweeper from Webroot Software, still detects and removes tracking cookies. So does another antispyware program derived from some of the same computer code as the Microsoft product -- CounterSpy, by Sunbelt Software. I haven't tested the latter program, but it has received good reviews elsewhere. There are other antispyware programs as well that still treat tracking cookies as spyware.
To understand the tracking-cookie issue, you have to know something about cookies overall, and you have to know what spyware actually is.
Cookies are small text files that Web-site operators -- and third-party companies that insert ads into Web sites -- place on a user's computer. Many types of cookies are harmless or even helpful. For instance, a cookie might help a Web site remember your preferences for what news topics you chose to see. With your permission, it might store your login information, so you don't have to type it in each time you visit a particular site. Antispyware programs aren't designed to detect or remove these helpful cookies.
Tracking cookies shouldn't be confused with these other cookies. They have no user benefit except the vague promise that the ads you get as a result may be better tailored to your interests.
What is spyware? There are many definitions, but here is mine, in two sentences. Spyware -- and a related category called adware -- is computer code placed on a user's computer without his or her permission and without notification, or with notification so obscure it hardly merits the term. Once installed, spyware and adware alter the PC's behavior to suit the interests of outside parties rather than those of the owner or user.
Examples of spyware and adware include programs called "browser hijackers," which reset the home page or search engine used by your browser so the user is diverted to the sites of the spyware and adware companies or their clients. Others record your activities and report them to outside parties. Still others push ads in your face, even when you aren't using the Web.
Some tracking-cookie purveyors say their cookies aren't really spyware because they aren't full-fledged programs and they aren't as outrageous as spyware programs like "key loggers," which record and report every keystroke you enter. Others argue that the companies don't collect personally identifiable data, only aggregate data from many users. To me, tracking cookies clearly meet the obvious definition of spyware.
Rather than trying to legitimize tracking cookies with pressure and marketing campaigns, I suggest that, if they really believe tracking cookies are legitimate, the companies that use them simply go straight. They should ask a user's permission to install the cookies, pointing out whatever user benefits they believe the cookies provide. They might even offer users compensation for allowing tracking cookies on their machines.
Until that happens, here is my advice: If you don't like the idea of tracking cookies, run an antispyware program that detects and removes them, along with all the other indefensible computer code some companies think they have the right to install. After all, it is your computer.
Despite Others' Claims,
Tracking Cookies Fit
My Spyware Definition
July 14, 2005; (Wall Street Journal Online)
Suppose you bought a TV set that included a component to track what you watched, and then reported that data back to a company that used or sold it for advertising purposes. Only nobody told you the tracking technology was there or asked your permission to use it.
You would likely be outraged at this violation of privacy. Yet that kind of Big Brother intrusion goes on every day on the Internet, affecting millions of people. Many Web sites, even from respectable companies, place a secret computer file called a "tracking cookie" on your hard disk. This file records where you go on the Web on behalf of Internet advertising companies that later use the information for their own business purposes. In almost all cases, the user isn't notified of the download of the tracking cookie, let alone asked for permission to install it.
Luckily, the leading Windows antispyware programs can detect and remove these tracking cookies. It is the best defense a user has against this tactic.
Now, though, some of the companies that place these files on your hard disk are complaining about that defense. Some are urging the antispyware software companies to stop detecting and removing tracking cookies. They assert that the secret placement of these tracking mechanisms is a legitimate business practice, and that tracking cookies aren't really spyware or aren't harmful.
Unfortunately for consumers, this twisted reasoning is having some impact. In the most notable case, Microsoft disabled the detection and removal of tracking cookies when it purchased an antispyware program from a small company called Giant and turned it into Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware. That is a big reason why I can't recommend the Microsoft product, which still is in the test phase but is available for anyone to download.
Microsoft says it still is evaluating how to treat tracking cookies in the program's final release. I believe it is important for consumers to know who is on their side right from the start and who may be being swayed by companies that do things to your computer without telling you.
The antispyware program I currently use and recommend, Spy Sweeper from Webroot Software, still detects and removes tracking cookies. So does another antispyware program derived from some of the same computer code as the Microsoft product -- CounterSpy, by Sunbelt Software. I haven't tested the latter program, but it has received good reviews elsewhere. There are other antispyware programs as well that still treat tracking cookies as spyware.
To understand the tracking-cookie issue, you have to know something about cookies overall, and you have to know what spyware actually is.
Cookies are small text files that Web-site operators -- and third-party companies that insert ads into Web sites -- place on a user's computer. Many types of cookies are harmless or even helpful. For instance, a cookie might help a Web site remember your preferences for what news topics you chose to see. With your permission, it might store your login information, so you don't have to type it in each time you visit a particular site. Antispyware programs aren't designed to detect or remove these helpful cookies.
Tracking cookies shouldn't be confused with these other cookies. They have no user benefit except the vague promise that the ads you get as a result may be better tailored to your interests.
What is spyware? There are many definitions, but here is mine, in two sentences. Spyware -- and a related category called adware -- is computer code placed on a user's computer without his or her permission and without notification, or with notification so obscure it hardly merits the term. Once installed, spyware and adware alter the PC's behavior to suit the interests of outside parties rather than those of the owner or user.
Examples of spyware and adware include programs called "browser hijackers," which reset the home page or search engine used by your browser so the user is diverted to the sites of the spyware and adware companies or their clients. Others record your activities and report them to outside parties. Still others push ads in your face, even when you aren't using the Web.
Some tracking-cookie purveyors say their cookies aren't really spyware because they aren't full-fledged programs and they aren't as outrageous as spyware programs like "key loggers," which record and report every keystroke you enter. Others argue that the companies don't collect personally identifiable data, only aggregate data from many users. To me, tracking cookies clearly meet the obvious definition of spyware.
Rather than trying to legitimize tracking cookies with pressure and marketing campaigns, I suggest that, if they really believe tracking cookies are legitimate, the companies that use them simply go straight. They should ask a user's permission to install the cookies, pointing out whatever user benefits they believe the cookies provide. They might even offer users compensation for allowing tracking cookies on their machines.
Until that happens, here is my advice: If you don't like the idea of tracking cookies, run an antispyware program that detects and removes them, along with all the other indefensible computer code some companies think they have the right to install. After all, it is your computer.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
VLC....An Alternative Media Player
Give this little application a run..it's a great free replacement for the Windows Media Player. It plays music AND videos. But it really excels at videos, playing all formats (WindowsMedia, Real, Apple QuickTime, Divx etc.) without crashing your system.
VLC Media Player
VLC Media Player
Friday, January 21, 2005
A Possible Alternative To Cable / DSL Internet Access
Wireless broadband might break the monopoly stranglehold that the cable and telephone companies have on Internet access. The new competition could lead to lower prices.
Internet and Phone Companies
Plot Wireless-Broadband Push
By JESSE DRUCKER and ALMAR LATOUR
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 20, 2005
Several big Internet and phone companies are moving to provide wireless high-speed access to the Internet -- without phone lines or cable -- challenging the dominance of those traditional connections to millions of U.S. homes and offices.
EarthLink Inc. hopes to be selling this kind of Internet access, known as wireless broadband, in multiple markets across the country by the second half of this year, according to a company executive. Sprint Corp. and MCI Inc. are actively testing the technology, while AT&T Corp. plans to begin deploying it in 2006.
The city of Philadelphia is moving ahead with the nation's largest citywide deployment of the technology know as Wi-Fi and next month will announce details for its plan to blanket the city with cheap wireless Internet access. The reason, city officials have said, is that parts of some neighborhoods haven't been wired for high-speed Internet access via phone or cable lines, and others can't afford it.
These various wireless moves have the potential to yet again shift the balance of power in the rapidly changing U.S. telecommunications industry, giving consumers a potentially cheaper and more flexible alternative to phone and cable lines for Internet access and many other services.
One of the technologies drawing the most attention is WiMAX, which is similar to the popular Wi-Fi standard that millions of people have used to set up wireless networks in their homes but is slated to have a range of several miles. Since WiMAX has yet to be certified, companies are using precursors to the technology.
If the technology takes off, millions of phone and cable customers could cut the wires that tether them to the regulated telecom world. That means being able to surf the Internet and send e-mail at high speeds -- maybe eventually make calls over the Internet -- with a wireless-enabled computer in any room in a house or any outside space covered by the technology. The advantages of portability should be obvious to anyone who remembers when there were no cellphones.
Besides lopping off some wires, wireless broadband could open the door to more competitors. It is expected to become relatively cheap to deploy over time, which could mean lower prices and more options for consumers and businesses.
One disadvantage: The spectrum that Wi-Fi uses is unlicensed and more prone to interference. These plans are different from the so-called 3G cellular networks that wireless companies like Verizon Wireless are rolling out to zap e-mail and video via cellphones.
Before anyone can cut their old cords, however, the technology must clear a number of hurdles. And no one expects to see the telephone companies and cable operators, with their dominance of the Internet-access market, to cede much of that turf easily or soon.
In fact, the Bell companies also are actively testing various wireless services as they rush to dominate an array of emerging technologies like Internet calling. Qwest Communications International Inc. has tested wireless broadband in several markets and plans to roll it out to consumers and businesses in 18 months. Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. have also run advanced trials.
Sprint, for example, has been doing trials of wireless broadband using equipment from Motorola Inc. called "Canopy," in rural markets in North Carolina and Kansas. There, customers receive high-speed Web access wirelessly. Once the wireless broadband services are standardized, "that would allow us to truly compete with a broadband type of application that would compete with cable and DSL providers," says Oliver Valente, Sprint's vice president of technology development. DSL is the most common high-speed technology for Internet access via telephone lines.
Sprint is also looking at offering national WiMAX services, combining its valuable radio-wave spectrum with that of Nextel Communications Inc. The two companies last month announced plans to merge.
Internet and Phone Companies
Plot Wireless-Broadband Push
By JESSE DRUCKER and ALMAR LATOUR
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 20, 2005
Several big Internet and phone companies are moving to provide wireless high-speed access to the Internet -- without phone lines or cable -- challenging the dominance of those traditional connections to millions of U.S. homes and offices.
EarthLink Inc. hopes to be selling this kind of Internet access, known as wireless broadband, in multiple markets across the country by the second half of this year, according to a company executive. Sprint Corp. and MCI Inc. are actively testing the technology, while AT&T Corp. plans to begin deploying it in 2006.
The city of Philadelphia is moving ahead with the nation's largest citywide deployment of the technology know as Wi-Fi and next month will announce details for its plan to blanket the city with cheap wireless Internet access. The reason, city officials have said, is that parts of some neighborhoods haven't been wired for high-speed Internet access via phone or cable lines, and others can't afford it.
These various wireless moves have the potential to yet again shift the balance of power in the rapidly changing U.S. telecommunications industry, giving consumers a potentially cheaper and more flexible alternative to phone and cable lines for Internet access and many other services.
One of the technologies drawing the most attention is WiMAX, which is similar to the popular Wi-Fi standard that millions of people have used to set up wireless networks in their homes but is slated to have a range of several miles. Since WiMAX has yet to be certified, companies are using precursors to the technology.
If the technology takes off, millions of phone and cable customers could cut the wires that tether them to the regulated telecom world. That means being able to surf the Internet and send e-mail at high speeds -- maybe eventually make calls over the Internet -- with a wireless-enabled computer in any room in a house or any outside space covered by the technology. The advantages of portability should be obvious to anyone who remembers when there were no cellphones.
Besides lopping off some wires, wireless broadband could open the door to more competitors. It is expected to become relatively cheap to deploy over time, which could mean lower prices and more options for consumers and businesses.
One disadvantage: The spectrum that Wi-Fi uses is unlicensed and more prone to interference. These plans are different from the so-called 3G cellular networks that wireless companies like Verizon Wireless are rolling out to zap e-mail and video via cellphones.
Before anyone can cut their old cords, however, the technology must clear a number of hurdles. And no one expects to see the telephone companies and cable operators, with their dominance of the Internet-access market, to cede much of that turf easily or soon.
In fact, the Bell companies also are actively testing various wireless services as they rush to dominate an array of emerging technologies like Internet calling. Qwest Communications International Inc. has tested wireless broadband in several markets and plans to roll it out to consumers and businesses in 18 months. Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. have also run advanced trials.
Sprint, for example, has been doing trials of wireless broadband using equipment from Motorola Inc. called "Canopy," in rural markets in North Carolina and Kansas. There, customers receive high-speed Web access wirelessly. Once the wireless broadband services are standardized, "that would allow us to truly compete with a broadband type of application that would compete with cable and DSL providers," says Oliver Valente, Sprint's vice president of technology development. DSL is the most common high-speed technology for Internet access via telephone lines.
Sprint is also looking at offering national WiMAX services, combining its valuable radio-wave spectrum with that of Nextel Communications Inc. The two companies last month announced plans to merge.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Saturday, January 15, 2005
AOL Can Save The Internet
It's fashionable to bash AOL. Anyone who has progressed beyond the newbie stage is expected to move on to other providers. But lately so many people have had their internet experience crippled by spyware, viruses, popups, browser hijacks, and spam, that the "nanny" approach of AOL may be seen as useful again.
AOL offers it's subscribers anti-virus protection, it blocks a lot of spam, employs an effective popup blocker, and restricts spyware. All of this is basically transparent to the AOL user who just wants to use the web wih as little effort as possible. Without the user's knowledge or permission, AOL installs protective software and even disables potentially problematic tools such as the MSN Messenger. The result is a better expereince for the average user who would not be able to manage his PC for himself.
Other ISP's such as Earthlink and MSN are also following this approach.
Of course it's not for everybody. Advanced users are perfectly able to defensively configure their PC's for themselves. But for the average user, having an ISP as a nanny, is not a bad idea.
AOL offers it's subscribers anti-virus protection, it blocks a lot of spam, employs an effective popup blocker, and restricts spyware. All of this is basically transparent to the AOL user who just wants to use the web wih as little effort as possible. Without the user's knowledge or permission, AOL installs protective software and even disables potentially problematic tools such as the MSN Messenger. The result is a better expereince for the average user who would not be able to manage his PC for himself.
Other ISP's such as Earthlink and MSN are also following this approach.
Of course it's not for everybody. Advanced users are perfectly able to defensively configure their PC's for themselves. But for the average user, having an ISP as a nanny, is not a bad idea.
Friday, January 14, 2005
Many Users Are Giving Up On Computers
No More Internet for Them
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 14, 2005
Stephen Seemayer had the first Pong video game system on his block. A decade later, the Echo Park artist was the first in his neighborhood to get a personal computer. And in 1996, he was so inspired by the World Wide Web that he created a series of small paintings for viewing over the Internet.
Now the 50-year-old Seemayer is once again on the cutting edge: Sick of spam clogging his in-box and spyware and viruses crashing his system, Seemayer yanked out his high-speed connection.
"I'm not going to pay for something that I can't use," he said.
A small but growing number of frustrated computer owners are coming to the same conclusion. They're giving up or cutting back their use of the Internet, especially at home, where no corporate tech support team will ride to their rescue.
Instead of making life easier — the essential promise of technologies since the steam engine — the home PC of late has made some users feel stupid, endangered or just hassled beyond reason.
Seemayer's machine, for instance, got so jammed with spam that he stopped checking e-mail. When he surfed the Web, pop-up ads from a piece of spyware he couldn't wipe out spewed sexually explicit images and used so much computing power that the PC would just stop.
"I could be sitting here in the living room reading a book," Seemayer said, "and I'd hear my son scream: 'It froze up on me again!' "
So when his son left for college in September, Seemayer finally unplugged.
Now when he uses his computer, it's to compose letters or organize photos — anything that doesn't require interaction with any other system.
Seemayer is still in the minority. Overall Internet use continues to grow.
But 2004 "was a real turning point in a bad direction," said technology analyst Ted Schadler of Forrester Research. "People are getting really angry. They're angry at Dell and Microsoft and their cable providers, and that's appropriate. They should be."
In a recent survey, 31% of online shoppers said they were buying less than before because of security issues. And though more people are signing up for high-speed, commerce-friendly connections, the proportion of U.S. Internet users paying for things online barely budged in 2004 from a year earlier. It rose to 27% from 26% in 2003 after jumping from 20% the previous year, according to Harris Interactive.
For many, spyware was the last straw. During the last 18 months, the sneaky programs have soared to the top of the list of tech woes, triggering the most tech support calls to Dell Inc., the nation's top PC maker. Spyware lurks on as many as 80% of computers nationwide, according to the National Cyber Security Alliance, a trade group.
Spyware generally transmits information to third parties and sometimes takes control of a PC, usually to display ads. The most pernicious varieties have instructed millions of computers to make expensive toll calls or logged every keystroke on affected machines and sent account numbers and passwords to identity thieves.
No one is immune. Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates discovered spyware on his personal machine not long ago.
The aggravation level has reached the point that some in the computer industry believe it threatens to undermine advances of the last decade, during which the Internet has grown from a virtually empty domain to a global community of 800 million souls. They say they need to act before the same early adopters who led mainstream Americans online lead them off.
"If, as an industry, we're not able to provide a safe, reliable computing environment, we do think consumers will get increasingly frustrated," said Michael George, general manager of Dell's U.S. consumer business. "We're concerned, and we want to get to a position where we play an instrumental role in fixing the problem."
It may well be up to private enterprise. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission are exploring a crackdown on spyware, but government efforts to stop another online scourge, spam, have had limited results, as many with an e-mail account will attest.
The root cause of the problems is the open architecture of the Internet, initially inhabited and managed by a collaborative community from government and universities.
"The Internet … grew out of a shielded, nice-guy environment in academia," Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen said. Back then, "the worst abuse might have been sending a prank message. Nowadays, the Net reaches everyone in the industrialized world, including large amounts of people with no shame and large numbers of criminals."
Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system also makes it possible for malicious code to spread, in part because it was designed to allow so many functions. Once a weakness in Windows is discovered by hackers, a virus can wreak havoc on millions of computers before Microsoft can offer a patch — which typical users may not take the initiative to download.
And consumer advocates claim that state and federal laws against spam don't help. Courts have protected software vendors from most consumer lawsuits, and some have held that the companies are all but immunized by warnings buried in lengthy user agreements, those boxes with massive amounts of text with the "I agree" button at the bottom.
Whatever the reasons, the threats have evolved from minor annoyances to serious computer risks.
Gerald Stark, 52, trained on computers in school and in the Navy before starting a small cleaning business in Lisbon Falls, Maine. He figured he could use the Internet to find equipment at a good price, track his sales and organize his volunteer activities with the Boy Scouts.
"I thought that the computer was the way to go because it was so much faster," he said. "It turned out to be a nightmare."
A virus killed one machine. Then spyware infested the next one, wiping out a year's worth of receipt records.
Stark read five years' worth of computer magazines just to keep up with how to defend himself.
Even with two firewalls and antivirus and anti-spyware programs running, Stark stopped looking for new business deals online. He said he would buy only from places he had dealt with before, preferably in the physical world rather than the virtual one.
"I'm not letting my guard down again," Stark said. "Never."
Henry Stiegel didn't think he needed his guard up in the first place. Pressed by his stockbroker and friends, Stiegel got his first home computer in 2003.
"I thought it was going to be like a television set — I'm going to sit right in front of it all day and have some control and learn things, scan for airfare and travel," the former Grumman Aerospace Corp. engineer said from Homosassa, Fla.
Even after studying in computing classes, the 77-year-old Stiegel was swamped by hundreds of viruses, other malicious programs and pop-ups.
"I still have windows I can't delete when I want to get rid of them. When I send an e-mail, I get interrupted and have to start all over," Stiegel said. "I have actually pulled the plug out of the wall so I could reboot."
Stiegel now turns the computer on only two or three times a week, mostly to read his e-mail.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., homemaker Peggy Kasul sits halfway between the anxious newcomers like Stiegel and the jaded old pros like Seemayer.
A computer owner for seven years, Kasul did a little shopping online. Her husband used the machine to help manage some rental property, and her 16-year-old daughter wrote term papers for school.
Then her daughter went on the Internet to research a paper on the issue of breast-feeding in public. As if she had typed in a magic word, spyware ads for porn sites popped up and wouldn't go away.
Soon the computer was unusable. It took more than three weeks and $300 to get the thing working again, by which time all the family's data had been wiped out.
Now Kasul sends her daughter to use the computers at school or the library.
"I don't do much shopping online anymore because that scares me," Kasul said. "I go to the store."
The biggest factor behind the rapid increase in spyware is the amount of money at stake. Ads for such blue-chip companies as Motorola Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and JP Morgan Chase & Co. appear in spyware programs.
The businesses most often accused of distributing spyware, including privately held Claria Corp., WhenU Inc. and 180Solutions Inc., say they are providing legitimate "adware" services to customers who approved the installation. But their disclosures are often misleading or buried: A recent Claria license ran for more than 60 electronic pages, first mentioning the phrase "pop-up" on page 18.
Much spyware arrives bundled with programs such as screensavers and file-sharing software.
"The part that worries me most is the tremendous amount of money that can be made by tricking people into installing junk on their computers," said Ben Edelman, a Harvard graduate student who has testified against spyware companies. "It's a great business."
The defenses remain scattered. Windows PCs often don't come with antivirus software installed. Firewalls and spam blockers are usually separate too, and there are dozens of small companies offering what they describe as anti-spyware products — some of which are actually fronts that install spyware.
"Staying safe online has gotten too complicated for the average user to do by buying individual products and making them work together," America Online spokesman Andrew Weinstein said.
Realizing that such fragmentation is making matters worse, some companies are rounding up the pieces of a more complete resistance.
Microsoft recently bought both an antivirus company and an anti-spyware software maker. Time Warner's latest version of AOL checks for spyware and offers to delete it. And where Dell's online guide for configuring a PC used to suggest a combined antivirus and firewall program without saying why, it now explicitly warns buyers to protect themselves or face potentially costly problems in the future.
Legislation that would have required more direct warnings by spyware companies to consumers and ensured that users could delete the programs made headway in the last session of Congress, despite objections from top computer-security company Symantec Corp. and other software providers. Ari Schwartz, an anti-spyware lobbyist with the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, put the odds of some legislation passing in 2005 at better than 80%.
The FTC last fall filed its first case against spyware companies accused of using a security flaw in Internet Explorer to cram system-glutting programs into the machines of website visitors. The companies named were Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. and SmartBot.net Inc. But current fraud laws allow regulators only to recover ill-gotten gains — no matter how much damage the bad guys have inflicted.
Enacting new federal bills "would be helpful," said Lydia Parnes, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. Spyware "needs to be understandable to consumers, and it needs to be presented in a way that's kind of visible to them."
Even if a strong law passes, Parnes said she didn't know whether the average computer user would be any better off in three years.
If it's worse, Seemayer probably won't be the only one on his block with a PC cut off from the Internet.
"It's great for anything you can do on your own," he said. "It seems to me an incredible typewriter — and that's it."
Fed up over problems stemming from viruses and spyware, some computer users are giving up or curbing their use of the Web.
By Joseph MennLos Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 14, 2005
Stephen Seemayer had the first Pong video game system on his block. A decade later, the Echo Park artist was the first in his neighborhood to get a personal computer. And in 1996, he was so inspired by the World Wide Web that he created a series of small paintings for viewing over the Internet.
Now the 50-year-old Seemayer is once again on the cutting edge: Sick of spam clogging his in-box and spyware and viruses crashing his system, Seemayer yanked out his high-speed connection.
"I'm not going to pay for something that I can't use," he said.
A small but growing number of frustrated computer owners are coming to the same conclusion. They're giving up or cutting back their use of the Internet, especially at home, where no corporate tech support team will ride to their rescue.
Instead of making life easier — the essential promise of technologies since the steam engine — the home PC of late has made some users feel stupid, endangered or just hassled beyond reason.
Seemayer's machine, for instance, got so jammed with spam that he stopped checking e-mail. When he surfed the Web, pop-up ads from a piece of spyware he couldn't wipe out spewed sexually explicit images and used so much computing power that the PC would just stop.
"I could be sitting here in the living room reading a book," Seemayer said, "and I'd hear my son scream: 'It froze up on me again!' "
So when his son left for college in September, Seemayer finally unplugged.
Now when he uses his computer, it's to compose letters or organize photos — anything that doesn't require interaction with any other system.
Seemayer is still in the minority. Overall Internet use continues to grow.
But 2004 "was a real turning point in a bad direction," said technology analyst Ted Schadler of Forrester Research. "People are getting really angry. They're angry at Dell and Microsoft and their cable providers, and that's appropriate. They should be."
In a recent survey, 31% of online shoppers said they were buying less than before because of security issues. And though more people are signing up for high-speed, commerce-friendly connections, the proportion of U.S. Internet users paying for things online barely budged in 2004 from a year earlier. It rose to 27% from 26% in 2003 after jumping from 20% the previous year, according to Harris Interactive.
For many, spyware was the last straw. During the last 18 months, the sneaky programs have soared to the top of the list of tech woes, triggering the most tech support calls to Dell Inc., the nation's top PC maker. Spyware lurks on as many as 80% of computers nationwide, according to the National Cyber Security Alliance, a trade group.
Spyware generally transmits information to third parties and sometimes takes control of a PC, usually to display ads. The most pernicious varieties have instructed millions of computers to make expensive toll calls or logged every keystroke on affected machines and sent account numbers and passwords to identity thieves.
No one is immune. Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates discovered spyware on his personal machine not long ago.
The aggravation level has reached the point that some in the computer industry believe it threatens to undermine advances of the last decade, during which the Internet has grown from a virtually empty domain to a global community of 800 million souls. They say they need to act before the same early adopters who led mainstream Americans online lead them off.
"If, as an industry, we're not able to provide a safe, reliable computing environment, we do think consumers will get increasingly frustrated," said Michael George, general manager of Dell's U.S. consumer business. "We're concerned, and we want to get to a position where we play an instrumental role in fixing the problem."
It may well be up to private enterprise. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission are exploring a crackdown on spyware, but government efforts to stop another online scourge, spam, have had limited results, as many with an e-mail account will attest.
The root cause of the problems is the open architecture of the Internet, initially inhabited and managed by a collaborative community from government and universities.
"The Internet … grew out of a shielded, nice-guy environment in academia," Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen said. Back then, "the worst abuse might have been sending a prank message. Nowadays, the Net reaches everyone in the industrialized world, including large amounts of people with no shame and large numbers of criminals."
Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system also makes it possible for malicious code to spread, in part because it was designed to allow so many functions. Once a weakness in Windows is discovered by hackers, a virus can wreak havoc on millions of computers before Microsoft can offer a patch — which typical users may not take the initiative to download.
And consumer advocates claim that state and federal laws against spam don't help. Courts have protected software vendors from most consumer lawsuits, and some have held that the companies are all but immunized by warnings buried in lengthy user agreements, those boxes with massive amounts of text with the "I agree" button at the bottom.
Whatever the reasons, the threats have evolved from minor annoyances to serious computer risks.
Gerald Stark, 52, trained on computers in school and in the Navy before starting a small cleaning business in Lisbon Falls, Maine. He figured he could use the Internet to find equipment at a good price, track his sales and organize his volunteer activities with the Boy Scouts.
"I thought that the computer was the way to go because it was so much faster," he said. "It turned out to be a nightmare."
A virus killed one machine. Then spyware infested the next one, wiping out a year's worth of receipt records.
Stark read five years' worth of computer magazines just to keep up with how to defend himself.
Even with two firewalls and antivirus and anti-spyware programs running, Stark stopped looking for new business deals online. He said he would buy only from places he had dealt with before, preferably in the physical world rather than the virtual one.
"I'm not letting my guard down again," Stark said. "Never."
Henry Stiegel didn't think he needed his guard up in the first place. Pressed by his stockbroker and friends, Stiegel got his first home computer in 2003.
"I thought it was going to be like a television set — I'm going to sit right in front of it all day and have some control and learn things, scan for airfare and travel," the former Grumman Aerospace Corp. engineer said from Homosassa, Fla.
Even after studying in computing classes, the 77-year-old Stiegel was swamped by hundreds of viruses, other malicious programs and pop-ups.
"I still have windows I can't delete when I want to get rid of them. When I send an e-mail, I get interrupted and have to start all over," Stiegel said. "I have actually pulled the plug out of the wall so I could reboot."
Stiegel now turns the computer on only two or three times a week, mostly to read his e-mail.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., homemaker Peggy Kasul sits halfway between the anxious newcomers like Stiegel and the jaded old pros like Seemayer.
A computer owner for seven years, Kasul did a little shopping online. Her husband used the machine to help manage some rental property, and her 16-year-old daughter wrote term papers for school.
Then her daughter went on the Internet to research a paper on the issue of breast-feeding in public. As if she had typed in a magic word, spyware ads for porn sites popped up and wouldn't go away.
Soon the computer was unusable. It took more than three weeks and $300 to get the thing working again, by which time all the family's data had been wiped out.
Now Kasul sends her daughter to use the computers at school or the library.
"I don't do much shopping online anymore because that scares me," Kasul said. "I go to the store."
The biggest factor behind the rapid increase in spyware is the amount of money at stake. Ads for such blue-chip companies as Motorola Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and JP Morgan Chase & Co. appear in spyware programs.
The businesses most often accused of distributing spyware, including privately held Claria Corp., WhenU Inc. and 180Solutions Inc., say they are providing legitimate "adware" services to customers who approved the installation. But their disclosures are often misleading or buried: A recent Claria license ran for more than 60 electronic pages, first mentioning the phrase "pop-up" on page 18.
Much spyware arrives bundled with programs such as screensavers and file-sharing software.
"The part that worries me most is the tremendous amount of money that can be made by tricking people into installing junk on their computers," said Ben Edelman, a Harvard graduate student who has testified against spyware companies. "It's a great business."
The defenses remain scattered. Windows PCs often don't come with antivirus software installed. Firewalls and spam blockers are usually separate too, and there are dozens of small companies offering what they describe as anti-spyware products — some of which are actually fronts that install spyware.
"Staying safe online has gotten too complicated for the average user to do by buying individual products and making them work together," America Online spokesman Andrew Weinstein said.
Realizing that such fragmentation is making matters worse, some companies are rounding up the pieces of a more complete resistance.
Microsoft recently bought both an antivirus company and an anti-spyware software maker. Time Warner's latest version of AOL checks for spyware and offers to delete it. And where Dell's online guide for configuring a PC used to suggest a combined antivirus and firewall program without saying why, it now explicitly warns buyers to protect themselves or face potentially costly problems in the future.
Legislation that would have required more direct warnings by spyware companies to consumers and ensured that users could delete the programs made headway in the last session of Congress, despite objections from top computer-security company Symantec Corp. and other software providers. Ari Schwartz, an anti-spyware lobbyist with the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, put the odds of some legislation passing in 2005 at better than 80%.
The FTC last fall filed its first case against spyware companies accused of using a security flaw in Internet Explorer to cram system-glutting programs into the machines of website visitors. The companies named were Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. and SmartBot.net Inc. But current fraud laws allow regulators only to recover ill-gotten gains — no matter how much damage the bad guys have inflicted.
Enacting new federal bills "would be helpful," said Lydia Parnes, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. Spyware "needs to be understandable to consumers, and it needs to be presented in a way that's kind of visible to them."
Even if a strong law passes, Parnes said she didn't know whether the average computer user would be any better off in three years.
If it's worse, Seemayer probably won't be the only one on his block with a PC cut off from the Internet.
"It's great for anything you can do on your own," he said. "It seems to me an incredible typewriter — and that's it."
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Buying A New PC
Most people buy "too much PC". In other words, they load up on features and functionality that they will never use. Before buying a PC one should carefully think about what you are going to use the PC for. Most people are only going to surf the web, do email, and maybe burn the occasional CD. For most buyers there is no need to get the "latest and greatest". There is only one exception to this rule: buy as much memory as you can afford. Memory drives the PC's performance and it's relatively cheap now. I recommend a minimum of 512 MB of memory. In the following article the author gives some excellent suggetions for PC buying.
There are plenty of good, inexpensive computers on the market, and buying one doesn't have to be an exercise in frustration. For as little as $600, you can get a perfectly good system to handle the basics - word processing, Web browsing, e-mail and financial record-keeping. For a few hundred dollars more, you'll get a system that's fine for digital photography, music and other forms of entertainment.
Just remember that PCs are a lot like cars - they start off with basic equipment and add options. And just like a car, a PC has a sticker - on the shelf or the side of the box - that tells you exactly what's under the hood. If you order online, you can often build your own sticker.
So let's get down to details and discuss what you'll see on that sticker - so you can decide exactly how much PC to buy.
MICROPROCESSOR: Also known as the Central Processing Unit or CPU, the microprocessor is the heart of a computer - the chip that does the computing. The faster and more sophisticated the processor, the better a PC will run - within limits.
If your PC usage is limited to the basics, the fastest processor on the market won't do it much better than the slowest. On the other hand, if you're shopping for a serious gamer or budding video producer, a fast CPU is definitely worth the expense.
Processors are labeled by manufacturer, model and speed - measured in gigahertz, or billions of cycles per second.
Intel has the lion's share of the Windows CPU market. Its flagship processor is the Pentium 4, but many entry-level PCs use the lower-end Celeron.
To confuse things in time for Christmas, Intel has relabeled its Pentium line with three-digit model numbers that take into account factors other than pure clock speed. These include the chip's architecture, the size of the on-board memory cache, and the speed of the front-side "bus," which carries data between the CPU and other key components.
This has made life harder for shoppers, especially when Intel's Web site says that "processor numbers are ... not a measurement of performance." Luckily, most manufacturers still mention processor speed in advertising and on stickers.
Intel's main competitors are AMD Athlon 64 and Athlon XP chips, which are roughly equivalent to higher and lower levels of the P4. Athlons are compatible with Intel chips, so it doesn't matter which manufacturer's CPU you buy if they're within the same performance range.
P4 chips run faster than Athlons, but Athlons get more work done with each clock cycle, so you can't compare that directly. Athlon uses chip numbers, which are roughly multiples of the equivalent Intel clock speed. So an Intel P4 running at 3.2 GHz and an Athlon XP 3200 will provide similar performance.
For basic PC use, even a Celeron in the 2-GHz range will do fine. If you're interested in multimedia, games, or digital video, go with a P4 in the 2.8- to 3.2-GHz range or equivalent Athlon. You'll pay a stiff premium for faster chips, so unless you're a crazed gamer or you're willing to pay for bragging rights, stay away from the fastest CPUs.
MEMORY: Often referred to collectively as RAM (random access memory), these chips store programs and data when the PC is running. Their capacity is measured in megabytes (MB), or millions of bytes. With more memory, your PC can run multiple programs with less effort and a smaller chance of crashing. Get a minimum of 256 megabytes and 512 MB if you can afford it. Serious digital photographers and video buffs may want more.
Most computers use a type of RAM known as DDR (double data rate). More advanced machines use something called dual channel memory, known as DDR2. You might notice the difference if you're a power freak.
HARD DISK STORAGE: Often confused with RAM, your computer's hard drive stores programs and data permanently - and constantly feeds and retrieves data from the CPU when the machine is turned on. Hard drive capacity is measured in gigabytes, or billions of bytes. You want a drive that's big enough to hold all your stuff and fast enough to move around without slowing down the machine's operation.
Luckily, hard disk storage is dirt cheap. For general-purpose computing, 40 gigabytes is fine, while an 80-gig drive will store plenty of music and photos. But if you're into video, look for at least 160 gigabytes. For the best multimedia performance, look for a drive labeled Ultra-ATA 133, or even better, one that uses the new Serial ATA standard (you'll pay for it).
VIDEO: Your computer's video circuitry produces the image on the monitor. For basic computing, whatever comes with the PC is likely to be fine. Lower-end machines generally use Intel video circuitry built into the main circuit board. This setup usually "shares" part of the computer's main memory, which might degrade performance. Avoid it if you're interested in serious digital photography, video or gaming.
For better performance, look for video circuitry from nVidia, ATI or another major manufacturer, with at least 128 megabytes of dedicated video RAM. If it's inside, the sticker will say so. A good video card with decoding software built in can also give you smoother playback with DVD movies.
CD/DVD: All computers have some variety of a compact disk-based drive, or two. They're used universally to install new software, and increasingly to back up data and create music or video disks.
At the very least, make sure your computer has a CD/RW drive, which can read data disks, play audio CDs, and create both types of media. A DVD-ROM can play CDs and commercial movie DVDs, which use much higher capacity disks. If you or your favorite student wants to watch movies on a PC (very big in college dorm rooms), look for a PC with both types of drives, or a combination drive known as a DVD-CD/RW, which can play DVD movies as well as read and write standard CDs.
To create movies on DVD, you'll need a DVD writer, which will add $100 to $150 to the cost of a system. They're easier to use and more reliable than last year's, but DVD writers are still troubled by competing industry standards and buggy software. But they'll handle reading and writing to CDs and DVDs. For maximum compatibility with external DVD players, look for a drive that can handle DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats.
SOUND: Since PCs have become entertainment centers, most arrive with decent audio circuitry for playing audio CDs or digital music files stored on the PC. But if you're an audiophile, a music producer or a gamer who wants the latest Dolby 5.1, surround-sound home theater reproduction, look for a computer with Creative Sound Blaster or Turtle Beach sound technology.
Low-end machines, and even those with higher price tags, often come with tiny, two-speaker systems. If you're serious about audio, consider buying a three-speaker setup with a subwoofer for music or a five-speaker system for games and home theater sound.
Oh, yes. If you buy a teenager a speaker system, don't forget headphones with an extension cord. Then you can tell him to turn the speakers off when the house starts trembling.
PORTS: The back of a computer can be a confusing place, because that's where most manufacturers put the "ports," or receptacles for gadgets that plug into the PC, including the keyboard, mouse, printers, scanners, cable modem and so forth.
Most peripherals, including digital cameras and music players, hook up to the PC through Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports. More USB ports are better - some PCs come with as many as eight. But look for one that has USB, headphone and other multimedia ports on the front panel - it's much more convenient than crawling behind the PC to plug stuff in.
One item that's not standard equipment on all PCs is the IEEE 1394 port, also known as FireWire. This is the port that digital camcorders require - so if you're going to edit digital videos, make sure the PC has at least one.
CARD READERS: The hot built-in this year is a multicard reader that accepts the flash memory cards used by digital cameras and music players, making it easy to copy photos and other material to your computer without special software. While it's convenient, a card reader, or lack of one, shouldn't be a deal breaker. You can buy a card reader that plugs into a USB port for as little as $20.
MONITOR: Flat panel, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have taken over the monitor market everywhere but the low end. Using the same technology as laptop screens, they're only a couple of inches thick, so they occupy a fraction of the front-to-back room of a monitor based on a cathode ray tube (CRT). Flat panels also use a lot less electricity than CRTs and look much cooler.
An LCD screen will add from $100 to $500 to the price of a system, depending on the size - larger LCDs are far more expensive than smaller models. Bargain systems with LCDs usually offer 15-inch screens, which might be a bit small for older eyes. So it might be worth upgrading to a 17-inch screen, or a 19-inch monitor if you're feeling flush.
Flat panels vary greatly in quality. Look for one that has good brightness and contrast controls that work - and make sure the brightness doesn't drop off a cliff when you view the screen from an angle.
Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun
Be not dismayed; good buys are out there for PC shoppers
Mike Himowitz
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|
Just remember that PCs are a lot like cars - they start off with basic equipment and add options. And just like a car, a PC has a sticker - on the shelf or the side of the box - that tells you exactly what's under the hood. If you order online, you can often build your own sticker.
So let's get down to details and discuss what you'll see on that sticker - so you can decide exactly how much PC to buy.
If your PC usage is limited to the basics, the fastest processor on the market won't do it much better than the slowest. On the other hand, if you're shopping for a serious gamer or budding video producer, a fast CPU is definitely worth the expense.
Processors are labeled by manufacturer, model and speed - measured in gigahertz, or billions of cycles per second.
Intel has the lion's share of the Windows CPU market. Its flagship processor is the Pentium 4, but many entry-level PCs use the lower-end Celeron.
To confuse things in time for Christmas, Intel has relabeled its Pentium line with three-digit model numbers that take into account factors other than pure clock speed. These include the chip's architecture, the size of the on-board memory cache, and the speed of the front-side "bus," which carries data between the CPU and other key components.
This has made life harder for shoppers, especially when Intel's Web site says that "processor numbers are ... not a measurement of performance." Luckily, most manufacturers still mention processor speed in advertising and on stickers.
Intel's main competitors are AMD Athlon 64 and Athlon XP chips, which are roughly equivalent to higher and lower levels of the P4. Athlons are compatible with Intel chips, so it doesn't matter which manufacturer's CPU you buy if they're within the same performance range.
P4 chips run faster than Athlons, but Athlons get more work done with each clock cycle, so you can't compare that directly. Athlon uses chip numbers, which are roughly multiples of the equivalent Intel clock speed. So an Intel P4 running at 3.2 GHz and an Athlon XP 3200 will provide similar performance.
For basic PC use, even a Celeron in the 2-GHz range will do fine. If you're interested in multimedia, games, or digital video, go with a P4 in the 2.8- to 3.2-GHz range or equivalent Athlon. You'll pay a stiff premium for faster chips, so unless you're a crazed gamer or you're willing to pay for bragging rights, stay away from the fastest CPUs.
Most computers use a type of RAM known as DDR (double data rate). More advanced machines use something called dual channel memory, known as DDR2. You might notice the difference if you're a power freak.
Luckily, hard disk storage is dirt cheap. For general-purpose computing, 40 gigabytes is fine, while an 80-gig drive will store plenty of music and photos. But if you're into video, look for at least 160 gigabytes. For the best multimedia performance, look for a drive labeled Ultra-ATA 133, or even better, one that uses the new Serial ATA standard (you'll pay for it).
For better performance, look for video circuitry from nVidia, ATI or another major manufacturer, with at least 128 megabytes of dedicated video RAM. If it's inside, the sticker will say so. A good video card with decoding software built in can also give you smoother playback with DVD movies.
At the very least, make sure your computer has a CD/RW drive, which can read data disks, play audio CDs, and create both types of media. A DVD-ROM can play CDs and commercial movie DVDs, which use much higher capacity disks. If you or your favorite student wants to watch movies on a PC (very big in college dorm rooms), look for a PC with both types of drives, or a combination drive known as a DVD-CD/RW, which can play DVD movies as well as read and write standard CDs.
To create movies on DVD, you'll need a DVD writer, which will add $100 to $150 to the cost of a system. They're easier to use and more reliable than last year's, but DVD writers are still troubled by competing industry standards and buggy software. But they'll handle reading and writing to CDs and DVDs. For maximum compatibility with external DVD players, look for a drive that can handle DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats.
Low-end machines, and even those with higher price tags, often come with tiny, two-speaker systems. If you're serious about audio, consider buying a three-speaker setup with a subwoofer for music or a five-speaker system for games and home theater sound.
Oh, yes. If you buy a teenager a speaker system, don't forget headphones with an extension cord. Then you can tell him to turn the speakers off when the house starts trembling.
Most peripherals, including digital cameras and music players, hook up to the PC through Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports. More USB ports are better - some PCs come with as many as eight. But look for one that has USB, headphone and other multimedia ports on the front panel - it's much more convenient than crawling behind the PC to plug stuff in.
One item that's not standard equipment on all PCs is the IEEE 1394 port, also known as FireWire. This is the port that digital camcorders require - so if you're going to edit digital videos, make sure the PC has at least one.
An LCD screen will add from $100 to $500 to the price of a system, depending on the size - larger LCDs are far more expensive than smaller models. Bargain systems with LCDs usually offer 15-inch screens, which might be a bit small for older eyes. So it might be worth upgrading to a 17-inch screen, or a 19-inch monitor if you're feeling flush.
Flat panels vary greatly in quality. Look for one that has good brightness and contrast controls that work - and make sure the brightness doesn't drop off a cliff when you view the screen from an angle.
Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Borrow Your Neighbor's WiFi
If you don't abuse it, your neighbor won't even notice that you dipped into his stream of WiFi data.
How To Steal Wi-Fi
And how to keep the neighbors from stealing yours.
By Paul Boutin
When I moved into a new neighborhood last week, I expected the usual hassles. Then I found out I'd have to wait more than a month for a DSL line. I started convulsing. If I don't have Net access for even one day, I can't do my job. So, what was I supposed to do? There's an Internet café on the next block, but they close early. I had no choice—it was time to start sneaking on to my neighbors' home networks.
Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2109941/
How To Steal Wi-Fi
And how to keep the neighbors from stealing yours.
By Paul Boutin
When I moved into a new neighborhood last week, I expected the usual hassles. Then I found out I'd have to wait more than a month for a DSL line. I started convulsing. If I don't have Net access for even one day, I can't do my job. So, what was I supposed to do? There's an Internet café on the next block, but they close early. I had no choice—it was time to start sneaking on to my neighbors' home networks.
Every techie I know says that you shouldn't use other people's networks without permission. Every techie I know does it anyway. If you're going to steal—no, let's say borrow—your neighbor's Wi-Fi access, you might as well do it right. Step one: Lose the guilt. The FCC told me that they don't know of any federal or state laws that make it illegal to log on to an open network. Using someone's connection to check your e-mail isn't like hacking into their bank account. It's more like you're borrowing a cup of sugar. (Unless you hog their bandwidth by watching lots of streaming video—that's like hijacking a sugar truck.)
In the end, it's your neighbor's Internet service provider—not your neighbor—who will pay for the added traffic, and the ISP has already factored a small amount of line-sharing into their price plan. It is true that your surfing could cause the folks next door to break their service contract—many broadband providers do specifically forbid home customers from sharing a connection. But let's deal with those abstract ethical issues later—you have important mail to answer!
If you want to find a Wi-Fi network, don't start by looking on the sidewalk for chalk marks. "Warchalking," a technique for writing symbols in public places to alert neighbors to nearby wireless access points, is a cool concept that's been undermined by the fact that no one has ever used it. The best method to find some free wireless is to treat your laptop like a cell phone. Since Wi-Fi and cell phone signals travel on a similar radio frequency, the same tricks you use for getting a better phone connection might work on your computer. Sit near a window, since Wi-Fi signals travel better through glass than through solid walls. Stay away from metal objects. Pay close attention to your laptop's orientation—rotating your machine just a few degrees could help you pick up a network that you couldn't see before. Raise your laptop over your head, put it flat on the floor, tilt it sideways while leaning halfway out the window—get out the divining rod if you have to. You might get a reputation for being some sick laptop yoga freak, but isn't free Internet worth it?
If you live downtown or in a suburb where the houses are close together, a few minutes of laptop gymnastics will probably reveal several Wi-Fi networks. Certain names are a giveaway that a network probably won't be password-protected. Look for "linksys," "default," "Wireless," "NETGEAR," "belkin54g," and "Apple Network 0273df." These are the default network names for the most popular wireless routers. If a network owner hasn't taken the time to change the default name, that's a good clue that they probably won't have a password either. You should also look for signs of hacker culture. Since hackers love giving away Net access, an all-lowercase name like "hackdojo" is most likely an invitation to log on. On the other hand, a name in all caps is typically a network under corporate lockdown.
If you do get prompted for a password, try "public"—that's the default on many of Apple's AirPort units. You can also try common passwords like "admin," "password," and "1234"—or just check out this exhaustive list of default passwords. You should also try using the name of the network in the password space. A generic password could mean that the network's owner didn't have the sense to pick something less obvious or that they've decided to welcome outsiders. But who cares? You're in. And again, there's no specific law barring you from guessing the password, as long as you don't crack an encrypted network and read other people's transmissions.
You can tell that you've successfully joined a wireless network when your laptop's IP address changes as it's assigned a local number by the network's router. To watch it happen on a PC, keep the Network control panel in Windows open; if you have an Apple notebook, look at the Network section of the System Preferences program. (And if you're running Linux, I don't need to tell you where to look.) Once your laptop has an IP address, your next hurdle is getting DNS to work. DNS stands for Domain Name Service—it's what translates Internet domains like "slate.com" into IP addresses like 207.46.141.216. On most networks, DNS works automatically. But if you get a browser error like "Cannot find server," go back to your network menus and configure your laptop to use a public name server—144.162.120.230 in Dallas, for instance.
Once DNS is working, you should be good to go. While you should be able to surf the Web with no problems, you may have trouble sending mail from Outlook or other desktop programs because of restrictions on e-mail routing that have been set up to stop spammers. If you have problems, just use a Web-based mail service like Hotmail or Gmail instead.
Keep in mind that the neighbors may not be thrilled that you're sharing the line. One guy next door to my new building shut off his network the day after I moved in, probably because he got spooked by all those blinking LEDs on his router. Even neighbors who are happy to share may see you in a different light if they check their router's URL logs and find a few hundred hits on porn sites. While your browsing will show up under an anonymous address, the short range of Wi-Fi means that they'll at least be able to figure out that one of the laptop owners within 100 feet of their living room is a stuffed animal fetishist. (As a San Franciscan, I need to point out that a stuffed animal fetish is perfectly normal. It's your neighbors who have the problem.)
Since everyone isn't as eager to share their network as I am, it's only fair to explain that there's an incredibly easy way to keep neighbors and drive-by geeks off your network. All you have to do is set a password that isn't as obvious as "1234." There's an eye-glazing list of Wi-Fi security measures you can implement to block overachieving Russian teens from monitoring your keystrokes, but in real life the only people sniffing your wireless signal are jerks like me who need a place to log on until the phone company wires the apartment. An unguessable password sends as clear a message as a shot of Mace: Go find a Starbucks, creep.
Clarification, Nov. 22, 2004: There are some laws that could be used to charge you with unauthorized computer use, but my legal sources say that because there are so many networks left open to the public on purpose, it would be tough for an individual to make the legal case that their intent was to keep everyone off their network if it's not password-protected. If you stick to surfing the Web and not other people's PCs, you'll probably be safe from prosecution.
Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2109941/
A Review Of Desktop Search Programs
Now it's possible to find those lost files, tunes, emails etc. The reviewer gave the highest marks to Copernic.
Keeper Finders
Five new programs that let you search your hard drive without having a seizure.
By Paul Boutin
Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2111643/
Links
Copernic
Google Desktop Search
MSN Desktop Search
HotBot Desktop Search
Ask Jeeves Desktop Search
Keeper Finders
Five new programs that let you search your hard drive without having a seizure.
By Paul Boutin
I can find anything online in under a minute, but it takes me days to find an e-mail address on my PC. Lucky for me, the leading Web search companies are falling all over themselves to create free programs that dig through your hard drive. Google, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, and MSN have all released desktop search programs in the past few months. (Slate and MSN are both owned by Microsoft.) AOL's application, which is based on software from a company called Copernic, is now in customer trials, and Yahoo will join the fray early in 2005.
Desktop search applications work a lot like the search function that's already built into the Windows Start Menu, but they're much quicker. They're also smarter about sifting through your e-mail, music files, browser history, and other special data formats. You probably won't find all the Steely Dan songs in your iTunes library or every PDF with the phrase "owner's manual" using the Windows search. If you use the right desktop search application, it's a snap.
How's it possible to make searching through files on your desktop as painless as finding results on the Web? Memorize the contents of the hard drive in advance. In simplest terms, a desktop search program works by pre-scanning files on your computer—e-mail messages, Web pages in your browser's cache, spreadsheets, etc.—and compiling a list of the words and phrases it finds. (Depending on the program, the initial indexing process can sideline your computer for anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of hours.) This index of your hard disk's contents gets stored as a compact file or folder that's optimized for fast access. When you punch in a term like "invoice," you'll get results in a fraction of a second because the program already knows every file to look in.
Since running more than one of these programs at once will slow your computer to a crawl, I installed each of the five applications separately and then went hunting for representative data: e-mail messages and attachments, phone numbers, instant messages, PowerPoint presentations, MP3s, photos, PDF and PostScript files, Web pages, and Word and Quark files. Speed and accuracy weren't an issue for any of these programs even on a minimally equipped PC, so I evaluated each program based on the following criteria:
Interface: Is it a stand-alone application, a browser-based tool, or does it just add search bars to your screen? Since different users prefer different approaches, what matters most is how well the chosen interface works.
What can it search? Every program I tested does full-text searches of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and e-mail. Most of them search music, image, and video files, as well as Web bookmarks. But if you want to look through e-mail attachments, instant messages, your browser history, and non-Microsoft-Office files—or if you use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer—the field narrows quickly.
Best feature(s): What distinguishes the program from the rest of the pack?
Worst feature(s): What's the most frustrating thing about the program?
The results, from worst to best:
Interface: A stand-alone application with a simple layout that doesn't flicker or reshuffle. Compared to its competitors, Jeeves is easy to understand and relaxing to use.What can it search? Not enough. Jeeves does full-text searches of Microsoft Office files, Outlook messages, and multimedia files but doesn't search browser cache, instant messages, Outlook Express e-mail, or Outlook mail attachments. Even worse, it doesn't let you work around its limitations by adding new file types or folders manually. Jeeves also thumbs its nose at customization, limiting users to two indexing options: You can scan either the My Documents and Desktop folders or the entire disk, nothing in between.
Best features: Listing search results in tabbed categories like "Pictures," "Office Documents," and "Internet Bookmarks" makes it easy to eyeball what kind of files you've found. A preview pane also shows you the first few lines from Word files and a few other types, so you needn't waste time opening them.
Worst feature: Can't add new file types.
Grade: D. Although it's easy to use, Ask Jeeves won't let you search as many files as the competition. The best thing I can say about Jeeves is that adding file types is easier than what they've already accomplished—building a great user interface. Jeeves will become a front-runner if it adds more data types in the near future, but for now it misses too much stuff you'll want to search.
Interface: An Internet Explorer add-in along the lines of the Google toolbar. When you type in a search term, the results are displayed in a sidebar that slides in from the left edge of the browser.What does it search? HotBot won't index image, music, and movie files or e-mail attachments. On the plus side, it does full-text searches of PDF files, RSS feeds, and the Internet Explorer history and joins MSN as the only program to index Outlook calendar entries, events, and notes. HotBot also lets you add oddball and custom file types—pretty much anything other than .JPG, .GIF, .MP3, or .MOV. You can also specify which folders on your disk to index or to ignore.
Best feature: You can choose separate indexing schedules for e-mail, RSS feeds, Web history, and anything else to minimize the amount of time HotBot spends crawling over your hard disk.
Worst feature: Too many important files—e-mail attachments, pictures, movies, music—aren't searchable, even by file name.
Grade: C. The HotBot Desktop is the only entry other than Copernic that doesn't call itself an unfinished "beta" release, but it still feels like a work in progress. It gets a low grade because it doesn't index attachments or music files and is full of little annoyances like a restriction on scheduling the e-mail index to update more than once an hour. HotBot developers say these restrictions were necessary to minimize the program's processor and disk space usage. I would have preferred to make those decisions myself.
Interface: Browser-based search and results pages that look like the Google Web site you know and love.What can it search? Google can index your AOL Instant Messenger sessions as you type, so you can search them later without having to save each one to a file manually. It also reads your browser cache (if you use Internet Explorer), Outlook attachments, and Outlook Express e-mail. It won't search Outlook Express attachments or contacts, PDF file contents, or, surprisingly, your Gmail account.
Best features: Desktop search results can be included at the top of Google Web searches just like headlines from Google News. Browser history results include Web page thumbnails. Privacy lovers can exclude specific folders and remove individual results from the index. And unlike the competition, store and search Web history pages from the secure servers used for online banking and e-commerce transactions.
Worst features: There's no way to manually add folders to be indexed. It appears that Google restricts searches to your personal folders.
Grade: C+. Google's desktop program has been plagued by questions about security problems that could let remote hackers search your PC. But the real problem here is that you can't search your entire PC. The program not only restricts searches to a preset list of folders, but it also won't match partial filenames. Google's desktop search is perhaps the least geek-friendly of the bunch, save Ask Jeeves. It doesn't have any of the special search syntax ("paul NOT boutin") or smart results sorting that Google's Web search is known for. If your photos have names like paul001.jpg, paul023.jpg, searching for "paul" or "paul*" won't turn up anything. If you don't know a wayward file's exact name, or if it's hiding in some backwater of your disk, you're simply out of luck.
Interface: Adds search boxes to the Windows taskbar, Internet Explorer, and Outlook. Searches from the taskbar pop up a special window; searches from IE and Outlook show up inside the application window.What can it search? Outlook calendar, events, and notes, Microsoft OneNote files, MSN chats, and Hotmail accounts (via Outlook Express). Oddly, it won't search your Internet Explorer history.
Best features: The taskbar search box shows results while you're still typing, with impressive speed. Command-line fans can use advanced query syntax such as "author:Josh OR author:Mark" to refine searches.
Worst feature: MSN doesn't let you add new file types like PostScript or Quark files.
Grade: B. If Outlook is your life, this is your search tool. While the number and variety of windows almost sent me crying for Ask Jeeves, MSN's search finds much more data than most everyone else. The multiple search bars and results screens it adds to your desktop and applications can be annoying, but it's not that hard to turn off the ones you don't like. MSN would probably get an A if it searched more stuff.
Interface: A standalone application that also adds a search box to the Windows taskbar. It looks similar to Ask Jeeves but doesn't have the handy tabbed results summary at the top of the screen, nor will it let you search every data type at once. The preview pane displays a wide range of file types and will automatically scroll to and highlight the location of your search terms within a file or message.What can it search? Any file type you add using its Advanced Options settings, in any folder you want. It's also the only program that will search Firefox browser histories and bookmarks, not just Internet Explorer.
Best features: You can add extra file types and folders to the index without any of the other programs' restrictions. The search box supports Boolean phrases ("Slate NOT Webhead"), and its graphical interface has options to refine results, such as e-mail headers ("From: Josh, Subject: deadline") or date ranges ("from July 29 to November 2, 2004"). Much of the index can be updated in real time as files are changed and new messages arrive, rather than at scheduled intervals.
Worst feature: You have to click through each category of results ("Emails," "Bookmarks," "History") separately, rather than being able to see all of them at once. If it only listed the number of results for each category, like Ask Jeeves and Google, you'd instantly know which categories to bother clicking on.
Grade: A. Copernic has almost as many configuration options as the rest put together but lacks some of the best features of the lesser tools: Jeeves' all-categories-at-once search and tabbed results, Google's live AIM indexing and Web page thumbnails, MSN's advanced search syntax and index of Outlook info, and HotBot's RSS search. Still, Copernic finds more than any other desktop search and gives you control over how it indexes your computer. Search Engine Watch has confirmed that AOL's still-under-wraps desktop search is "powered by Copernic," but you can download Copernic for free right now without joining AOL. At the price, it's one heck of a deal.
Paul Boutin is a Silicon Valley writer who spent 15 years as a software engineer and manager.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2111643/
Links
Copernic
Google Desktop Search
MSN Desktop Search
HotBot Desktop Search
Ask Jeeves Desktop Search
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Tools To Make Your Hard Drive Forget It's past
Text of New York Times Article
By RACHEL DODES
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
December 30, 2004
Tools to Make Your Hard Drive Forget Its Past
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ou, too, can erase your hard drive. Here's what you will need:
PAPER AND PEN Make a list of all hardware components, software registration codes, and tech support phone numbers for your Internet service provider and computer maker, just in case you encounter problems when you rebuild your system.
SOFTWARE DISCS If you do not have the original discs for all of your software, make sure you burn copies for reinstallation later. If you do not have the Windows installation discs that came with your computer, you will have to buy them ($300 for the full Windows XP program; $80 for an update) or contact the computer maker to get new ones; sometimes there is a fee.
STORAGE DISCS Writeable DVD's, CD's or any other form of storage media can be used to create a second backup of your files. If you are using DVD's, make sure that the format (DVD+R or DVD-R) is compatible with your own burner or the system on which you will be doing the burning.
CD OR DVD BURNER Use this to back up everything onto a disc. Zip drives will also work, but because of Zip discs' smaller storage capacity (250 megabytes), it will take much longer to save an extensive music collection.
EXTERNAL STORAGE UNIT If you will be using a second PC to burn backup discs of your files, an external storage unit can be an intermediary. Either a keychain drive or an MP3 player will do. (If you are on a network this is unnecessary - just save your files to a networked folder.) BACKUP PROGRAM After you rebuild your system, use a backup program. Norton Ghost ($70) features scheduled incremental hard-drive backups so you can restore to an earlier point if it gets re-infected. I.B.M. users have the luxury of Rapid Restore, which does the same thing. (If you have an older I.B.M. model, you can download this free at www.pc.ibm.com/us/think/thinkvantagetech.html).
SECURITY SOFTWARE Lead a virtuous virtual life: make sure that when you get back online, you are operating with a firewall and updated anti-virus software, or this whole effort will be in vain. Personal security packages, which include anti-virus and a firewall, generally cost $70 to $100. Brands include Zone Alarm (www.zonelabs.com), Norton (www.symantec.com) and McAfee (www.mcafee.com). An external router is also recommended, especially if you are conducting any business transactions on your PC; good ones cost less than $100.
A SHOULDER TO CRY ON A tech-savvy friend is an invaluable resource should anything go dreadfully awry. Rachel Dodes
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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