Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

The credit problems in America have been brewing for a long time. Download Maxed [NOT HERE, Google Video dropped it]. (July 2008 - this is why you want to download videos you like, never know when they will be pulled!).

I see Google is getting with it on their own video site and allowing video download to MP4 format. If that doesn’t work for you, see my blog entry on Video Download from the other day.

You can watch it on your PC if you want, but this video is almost an hour and a half long (don’t turn it off during the credits, one of the best lines comes after that - just listen to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury and wait).

We watched on the big screen TV since that’s a lot more comfortable than gathering the family around a PC.

I used Video Lan Player and selected full screen (output from my laptop). Looked very good.

Get the details and links from my video download page.

I wish I weren’t such a nice guy. A gal that works for one of my clients asked where she could take her laptop to for cleaning.

There wasn’t anyone I really felt comfortable recommending and I figured “how bad can it be?”

“Bring it to me”, I foolishly said.

It’s an IBM Thinkpad, which is good, with a Celeron processor, that’s bad.

Even though it has a Windows XP Pro license sticker on the bottom, XP Home is installed - Strike two.

And this thing is so polluted you can barely move the mouse pointer. There was no working antivirus software, although I finally found some program shortcuts for Norton 2003. No sign of the software though.

Internet Explorer is absolutely useless, well, more than usual. Unless you like infinite exploding popup windows. So after cleaning out the registry and everything else that was easy to find, I loaded BOClean antitrojan, antimalware and Firefox. BOClean has found only 1 item so far (and killed it).

Firefox runs, go to Google and do a search, no problem. Try to navigate to http://housecall.trendmicro.com and the program closes.

Using a USB flash drive I copied adaware 2007 (free version) and ran it twice. Found quite a bit and cleaned it. Now it refuses to run.

Using a USB flash drive I copied SysClean from another PC where I downloaded it. It gave me fits too, but finally I was able to make it run.

Also from a USB flash drive I copied the free antivirus from Comodo. It found nothing, although much had already been cleaned.

Searching for RootKits I used F-Secure’s Free (expires Oct 1st) BlackLight. It found nothing.

The persistent file I find, loading from the registry is PRX.exe in C:\Windows\System32. Googling it brought up nothing of any use.

I keep threatening to blast the whole thing, format the drive and reinstall Windows XP Pro from scratch but:

• I’m stubborn and see this as a challenge
• The owner says there is nothing she wants on the machine, but I’ve heard that before
• I can save C:\Windows\inf off to USB before I blast it, but I still fear the potential hassle of finding all of the drivers I will need for a laptop this old

Folks, surf wisely. Check out my User Behavior page on my website. Use SiteAdvisor. Run a competent antivirus program and BOClean for malware. Don’t open suspicious emails.

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Update

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• McAfee’s rootkit tool found nothing
• Trend Micro PC-Cillin would not install.. reported corrupt installation file. Installs fine on other, known clean, PC’s
• Navigating to Avast.com or AVG in Firefox caused the browser to immediately close
• Even if left unattended, at some point IE windows would open at a furious rate trying to go to www.llehs.com

Final resolution: Wipe Drive and Reinstall Windows XP.

I really get fed up with these antispam blacklist services like Spamcop and all the others.

They have no way of knowing how much good email is rejected with the spam. And the foolish users who pay for their service have no way to “whitelist” good email addresses.

That’s why I believe in companies maintaining their own email server and then using a quality, reasonably priced software like GFI MailEssentials to control spam. Having your own server and software allows you to blacklist whoever you want to block and whitelist your known valid customers, vendors, affiliates, friends, etc.

Spamcop just blacklisted me because someone is spamming from an IP address close to mine; as if I have any control over my “IP neighbors”. I go through this with some service or another every few months.

Oh sure, I can contact Spamcop, which I did, and go through their process for getting off the list. My time isn’t worth anything, right? And after Spamcop there are only about 75 other blacklists to cycle through.

One of my clients is blacklisted by MCHSI (Mediacom) because their new T-1 service is on an IP address that McLeod USA bought out 2 years ago and this outdated blacklist they use has, in 10 days, yet to respond to our request. (It says on their website that average response is just over 2 hours, yeah right!) Why Mediacom uses such an off the wall blacklist is beyond me anyway; other than the fact that everyone hates Mediacom and they want to keep up their reputation.

Get your own domain, your own server, your own antispam software. Quit paying others to tell you that your trusted associates can’t send you email because of the the shotgun approach the blacklist service uses to block spam.

And the lists that are free? Perhaps they’re free for a reason.

P.S. - And when the real spammers are found? Fire up “old sparky” for them.

We found a site that allows you to download video from YouTube in the new format post Aug 23, 2007.

DownThisVideo.com

WARNING!

Ads on this site are not safe for work / family.

As soon as we find a better, family-safe site for video download we will post it here.

It was about 5 years ago that I finally ended the misery of my worn out, broken hinged, Windows based PDA with a shot from a .45 auto.

My unit folded over like a laptop and had a pretty decent sized keyboard. Shortly after I bought my first laptop and I decided I wasn’t going to have both. But so many times I would like to access information but don’t want to take the time to fire up the laptop, open Outlook and wait for Outlook to figure out I don’t have a network connection so it will let me navigate to the data I want.

So I bought a Verizon XV6700 with Windows Mobile 5.0. The Verizon network isn’t everywhere, despite the incessant “can you hear me now” commercials. But where it works, it’s cool.

This little device can not only make a phone call, but allow you quick access to Outlook contacts, email and tasks. Simply plug it into your PC via USB cable and it both synchronizes the data and charges the battery.

There is built in WiFi capability and even IPSec and PPTP VPN connectivity. There are a host of applications written for these devices; how about GPS using a bluetooth GPS antenna? Or using the built in Remote Desktop (it’s a small screen, but it works).

One of my favorites is software that allows me to view my Axis IP Network Cameras when away. I’m a reseller of hardware and software for one of the pioneer firms in DVR and Network Recording Systems for the security and surveillance market. This is incredibly hot!

When you aren’t on the Verizon EVDO network getting downloads approaching 700k, you can connect and even view cameras or do whatever at about 56k modem speeds. Slower, but it still works. In fact, one location where I would be doing good to make a phone call from I was able to plug in to my laptop and use the phone as a modem with speeds of about 46k.

Speaking of which, according to Verizon, this phone is incapable of acting as a modem, so they won’t sell you that service for an additional $15/month. That’s ok, because it works anyway. Just Google it and you will find pages of detailed instructions with photos. Follow the instructions and you’re in business. Only catch is that you can’t use the device as a phone at the same time. Heard of Skype?

I’m sure I’ve barely scratched the surface of this XV6700’s capabilities. The new phones coming out are using Windows Mobile 6.0, but who knows, maybe the 5.0 is more stable. This phone does a lot more than what I know how to do now, maybe by the time I catch up to it I can trade for a Windows Mobile 6.0 phone.

Connectivity is what it’s all about. If you want to be connected, look into a device like the XV6700 and a data network like Verizon’s EVDO. I think you will be impressed.

P.S. - It even plays mp3’s and movies like you might expect; just load them onto the optional miniSD card and take them with you.

These days most hotels offer internet access, and unless at the priciest of hotels, it’s free. (Or maybe the real close by hotel has free WiFi!).

If the hotel has WiFi, you’re probably set. But what about those that thought wiring each room was the way to go?

More importantly, what about computer security when on the hotel network? When I’m connected to the internet, I want my router between me and the world. And I don’t want my world to include a few hundred hotel guests from who knows where.

I have found that a Linksys WRT54GS wasn’t too much trouble to carry and really came in handy. Plug that baby into the wall in the hotel room or condo and I have WiFi out on the balcony; and some security to spare. It isn’t the same security I have with my Fortinet Firewall at home, but it’s better than just connecting up!

If space is an issue, transpose some letters and get the Linksys WTR54GS travel router. It plugs straight into the wall, so no cord is needed. It also has one ethernet port if you want to use a cable for either configuration (my recommendation) or to connect a wired device.

Being connected is everything. Doing it without wires is just all the better.

Linksys Wireless-G Travel Router with SpeedBooster - WTR54GSThe Wireless-G WTR54GS Travel Router with Speed-Booster has a built-in access point, which connects Speed-Booster enhanced and regular Wireless-G and Wireless-B devices to the network. There’s also an Ethernet port to connect wired PC. The Wireless-G WTR54GS Travel Router with Speed-Booster function ties it together and now PCs can share a wired or wireless Internet connection.

The first decade of the 21st Century will come to be known as the decade of the camera. Not just digital cameras and camcorders, but surveillance cameras. Axis cameras are some of the better respected and known, now in the flavor of IP camera as well.

Surveillance cameras aren’t new, but IP cameras are. If you don’t mind opening your firewall, you can install a camera and have it available worldwide via the web in about 10 minutes.

I never cared too much for CCTV cameras. The coax cable and those sometimes finicky connectors don’t excite me. Nor do the limiting cards to attach to a PC.

IP cameras change all of that. And better yet if they are PoE (Power over Ethernet). PoE means just a Cat 5e cable run to the camera is all it needs. Monitor and record anywhere you like. The limits of that coax cable are gone.

I wish I could say that the Axis 207 IP Camera were PoE, but it isn’t. It “supports” PoE but requires a $100 splitter at the camera end to do it. And, oh by the way, no one seems to have that handy dandy splitter in stock.

The Axis 207 IP camera sells for about $250, is compact, easy to install and does a great job delivering color video. Comes with software to allow for recording, triggering events and emailing a photo. (The free software only supports one camera, however. Upgrade for a fee if you want one PC to monitor more than one camera).

Visit 2mcctv for the latest and hottest security cameras & surveillance systems available today!

The emailed photo sometimes is blurry; they actually need a delay factor between the motion and the photo in my opinion. But the recorded video should easily do the trick.

Video is viewable as either motion jpeg or mpeg-4. The mpeg-4 is fickle to get to work and keep working. I haven’t had time to trouble shoot it, the motion jpeg seems fine albeit with more bandwidth required. Internet explorer is the preferred web browser to view the camera, but nothing’s perfect. Firefox usually works, but I have had a time or two when it didn’t want to.

A multitude of independent software is available to connect to and record the camera’s output with no problem.

A heard a presentation by a bloke from the UK recently about all of the cameras on that island. About to outnumber the people it sounds like. He even had pictures of the rack of cameras across the street from his home.

The Axis 207 IP Camera is a great option for home or business; and I’m all for people keeping an eye on their stuff. I’m just not at all crazy about our “guv’ments” keeping all these eyes on us.

Axis 207 Network Camera

Over the summer I created a number of videos, primarily on the topic of routers, wireless routers and configuring security on wireless routers.

Setting up a router or configuring encryption on a wireless router is really not that hard to do. I uploaded the videos to make it easier for those not ordinarily comfortable doing something like that to have the confidence to give it a try.

You can see these videos on Associated Content. Use my own custom linkFreeComputerConsultant.

If you want to make a couple bucks submitting content to the internet on a topic you have knowledge, consider signing up on Associated Content.

The email domain I use in my consulting business has well over a hundred email addresses. When I begin a relationship with a new vendor, say Widgets Inc., I provide a contact email address to them of widgets@mydomain.com.

This freaks out some, impresses others. The point is that when I start receiving unsolicited offers from legitimate companies or unsolicited commercial offers (SPAM), and it is addressed to widgets@mydomain.com I know who sold, traded or leaked my email address. I then have the option of deleting that address and that source of spam goes away.

Six months ago I was forced to delete an address created for a German company who sells, of all things, security products. I informed them of the spam I was receiving at the address that only they have and received a “not me” response.

Recently I have had two other foreign companies, one a major South Korean monitor company and another a UK/German maker of - you guessed it - antispam products, have their custom email address at my domain be the target of spam.

Could it be that any company that large has someone employed who isn’t trustworthy or is there an easy way for hackers to monitor the open text flowing through international internet pipes that allows them to harvest email addresses?

Unfortunately at this point I have only questions and not answers. And one suggestion. When spammers are caught, execute them.

YouTube changed their video format on August 23, 2007. As a result of this “improvement”, video download programs like javamoya and keepvid no longer work.

I don’t know the details, but quite frankly I wonder why Google (YouTube) doesn’t provide video download functionality itself. If most people have the kind of broadband that doesn’t cause the video to stop and start (or just stop) then my video download page on my website wouldn’t be one of the most popular pages.

I’m not suggesting that lack of video download ability will cause viewers to abandon YouTube in favor of more worthwhile pursuits, of which most anything else is a better use of time, but since Google wants to own the world (that part they don’t already own) it surprises me that they don’t cover all the bases.

In fact, Google even launched a service to allow surfers to scan outer space in much the same way as they can now view the surface of planet earth.