Anything Goes Discussions

News, Tips, Tricks

December 21, 2008 • 9:10 pm 0

What to Do When IE Blocks a needed ActiveX

I recently was setting up port forwarding for a DVR at a business. They wanted to watch the DVR from a remote location and port forwarding with password protection was the easiest solution. Once I had the port forwarding set up on the router I set out to the remote site to set up the URL for the remote computer. What I encountered was an IE security error message that blocked the installation of the remoteweb.cab ActiveX.

What I first did was lower my security setting so that all ActiveX would be allowed and tried again without any success. I then put the URL in the Trusted sites and tried again only to fail. At this point I went to Google and found a couple of MS MVP’s that had left someone with the same problem some snotty answers. There was one intelligent answer from a MCSE but it was the first solution that I had tried.

Bound to not let this kick me for more than 15 minutes, I decided to lower the settings in the Trusted Sites to the lowest settings I could. I went back to the site, where low and behold the install worked perfectly. After it was finished and I could see the DVR, I went about moving the security settings in both the Tools > Security > Internet and Trusted Sites back to their normal settings.

internet-options

My last check was to restart IE and test the port forwarding site again, which was a smashing success. What this shows is that you shouldn’t listen to titles like “MS MVP” or “MCSE” as gospel. You can get good answers in all sorts of places, you can even find them yourself with a little persistence.

Filed under: Computer Industry, Computer Security, Internet Explorer, Networking , ActiveX, IE, Internet, Port Forwarding, Security

June 29, 2008 • 1:00 am 0

How to: Internet Security for FREE

Yes you can have good Internet security without paying for it over and over again every year. As I visit clients I see them with a multitude of different security solutions. The vast majority are the paid versions from the major players such as Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro and I always ask why.

The 3 biggest reasons I get are:

It came with the computer
I saw it advertised online or in a computer magazine
My ISP gave it to me for free

Lets take all of those in order and answer them.

They either bought it with the computer purchase or it was trial version and bought it when prompted
The online magazines and reviews always tend to favor the major players because they have this all in one solution, but it is not always the best solution.
But the ISP didn’t tell them they have to pay after the first year

Okay, I really chalk most of this to inexperienced users just trying to protect their computer. I’m actually happy they tried, but I feel sorry for them not getting another choice other than a company trying to sell them something. So here is what I use, all free versions, all get the job done and all do it pretty well. Before I start, let me say that there are other free solutions and I’m not saying that mine is only solution. If you have other ideas, please feel free to add to the discussion in the comments.

My Free Internet Security Solution

Anti-Virus – AVG 8.0 Free

It works well, finds almost everything and has a small footprint. Plus, its easy to configure and does scheduled scans and updates. It also has Anti-Spyware in 8.0, but I also recommend a separate spyware scanner.

Anti-Spyware – SuperAntiSpyware

I love this program. It gets just about everything and in concert with AVG has yet to fail me in a virus cleanup for a client that was infected while they were using other programs for virus protection. The free version of SuperAntiSpyware does not do realtime protection or let you schedule scans, but AVG includes realtime anti-spyware scanning. Doing a weekly scan takes 5 clicks on a Saturday or Sunday and you can do the weekend things we all do while it’s running.

Firewall - Comodo Firewall

Easy to use and install, unintrusive and has many features that add to AVG and SuperAntiSpyware. As a bonus, it also looks for malware, including rootkits.

All of these things together load less processes than any of the major vendors and they are real good at what they are supposed to do. They don’t do everything, which takes away from their main job. I’d rather have 3 products that are free that do what they are supposed to well, rather than one program that I’ve paid for that does everything mediocre leaving me open to infection.

That’s what I use for my clients and recommend to anyone wanting good internet security for a great price. Remember, the initial cost for a paid program is $40 to $50 dollars and $30 to $40 a year to update. At our current prices for gas alone that is 10 to 12 gallons of gas. I’d rather have the money for gas and food then give it to companies that don’t put out a good product.

Technorati tags: Internet Security, Computer Security

del.icio.us tags: Internet Security, Computer Security

Filed under: Computer Security, Computer Software, Internet, Networking, Security , AVG, Comodo Firewall, SuperAntiSpyware

January 3, 2008 • 5:20 pm 0

Warning: Sears Distributes Spyware Surprise

In an eWeek article Evan Schuman warns users and gives a great opinion on big business hiding information in long terms of service agreements in legalize. On top of that, they also make it so hard to read that you just click “I agree”

Here is an excerpt that gets to the gist of the problem:

Here’s the consensus of what happened: Sears created something called My SHC Community, which Sears describes as a member-feedback-based online community.

To encourage consumers to join, it offers the following carrots: “It’s a community that connects shoppers like you to SHC employees, including the most senior executives, so that together we can build a better shopping experience. In exchange for participating in the community, members will have access to free planning and budgeting tools, special forums to express their views and ideas and will receive exclusive offers and promotions. Members are also eligible to win cash and merchandise prizes via sweepstakes that occur regularly throughout the year.”

As part of the project, Sears installs a program from ComScore onto the consumer’s PC. Is the consumer asked for permission first? That’s an interpretation issue. Sears—correctly—says that the consumer first has to agree.

But Harvard’s Edelman said the information is vague and hidden deep within a very long “privacy statement and user license agreement,” a document made even more dense because it is presented in a very small scrolling window.

The “2,971 words of text, shown in a small scroll box with just ten lines visible, requires fully 54 on-screen pages to view in full,” Edelman wrote. “The tenth page admits that the application ‘monitors all of the Internet behavior that occurs on the computer on which you install the application, including … filling a shopping basket, completing an application form, or checking your…personal financial or health information.’ That’s remarkably comprehensive tracking—but mentioned in a disclosure few users are likely to find, since few users will read through to page 10 of the license.”

Source: Sears’ Christmas Spyware Surprise

This is another example of how to piss off consumers and it comes from Sears who is not a top retail company anymore. I guess this will drop them even further down the ladder.

Technorati tags: Sears, Spyware, Online Retail, Computer Security

Filed under: Computer Security, Computer Software, Spyware

September 3, 2007 • 10:36 am 1

Lifehacker Posts Unethical Article on Hacking

I subscribe to Lifehacker, but this article about accessing banned sites at work is in poor judgement and totally unethical.

If you’re (for whatever reason) blocked from viewing a particular web site, tech site WebStuffScan has posted a list of ten different strategies you can use to access the forbidden.
A lot of this is familiar ground: convert the IP address, anonymous proxies, etc.

Search Techniques: Ten Ways to Access Banned Sites – Lifehacker

As an IT administrator I see this as a case of employees not doing their job in a work situation. I work very hard to enforce managements policies and report any misuse of company computers or resources. Having to watch other employees in a big brother manner is not a fun job, while it takes away from friendly interaction with others because they know you are watching them. It also takes away from other more important things that I could be doing to help these employees make their jobs easier.

It comes down to these basics in the workplace:

The company you work for for pays you a wage to do a job, not hack around company banned sites.
It has the right to restrict web usage, email and anything else it wants while you are at work or using company resources.
If you don’t like the policies of your workplace, either try to change those policies the the proper way through channels, or find another job that lets you goof off at banned sites.

Technorati tags: Hacking, Ethics, Technology, Lifehacker, Computer Security

Filed under: Computer Security, Hacking, Networking, Technology , Ethics, Technology and Software

August 5, 2007 • 11:28 pm 0

Why you shouldn’t upgrade your Wireless Router

I’ve been using some Vista baseline testing programs for my network recently. Some of the results were obvious, but I laughed when I saw the suggestions for my router. Of course Microsoft wants me to upgrade to one of the newest Vista Certified routers to take full advantage of the Vista features in them. Well, the problem is that most of these routers are 802.11n, with work on the 802.11n standard dating back to 2004. But, the actual release is not expected for at least another year and the major manufacturers are now releasing ‘pre-N’, or ‘draft n’ models that aren’t quite ready for prime time. Buying one kind of makes you a beta tester.

My Linksys router is working fine, I only have one system using Vista and don’t see why I should upgrade when my wheel isn’t broke. I’m using WPA2-PSK with a long unbelievable SSID name and password with the routers hardware firewall turned on. Until I see something that shows me that I need to upgrade is there really a reason?

Nope….and this video shows why. It’s very interesting and I’m getting more and more hooked on the authors down to earth, funny approach to technology.