[s-cars] ADMIN: hiiiiikk!

[Joe Pizzimenti]

Off topic post.

Vote to ban.

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 21:43:38 -0400, Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net> wrote:
> Yup, we just had a hiccup with the server.  The antivirus bit went
> postal and filled 20GB of disk space with little bitty files, which
> makes getting rid of them a royal PITA(slow).  Then we had to sort
> out some side problems caused -by- the lack of disk space, but
> everything seems to be yippy-skippy now.  I think we lost a little
> email, not sure how much.
> 
> Incidentally, we get around a couple HUNDRED (sometimes more) copies
> of various viruses a day.  The viruses are a collossal waste of CPU
> time for the server, not to mention the bandwidth wasted- the buggers
> are 40-50kb EACH.  That's larger than the digest for quattro.
> 
> Obviously, consult with your IT department if the system in question
> is at work, or just leave it alone.  Assuming it's your system:
> 
> There's a free web-based scanner here: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
> (there are others, but that's one I've used with success before.)
> 
> While you're at it, run Spybot
> (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) and Adaware
> (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/).  Between those two,
> you'll most likely uninstall all the spyware and ad programs(the
> average home windows box has over 20 such programs, btw).  Spybot
> also can make some little tweaks to IE to make it less like the
> internet equivalent of a whore-house; look under "immunize".
> 
> Then, trundle over to Windows
> Update(http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com) and install whatever
> critical updates it finds.  Service Packs are most important, but XP
> users be slightly wary of SP2, MS is apparently still working out the
> kinks on that one.  Also, you don't need the latest Windows Media
> Player or anything having to do with DRM(Digital Rights Management).
> 
> If you have MS Office, there's a seperate web updater for
> that(http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/).  You will need the
> original Office disks.
> 
> Reboot, do it all again until everything comes back with a clean bill
> of health(Windows Update and office update included- they often need
> multiple reboots/runs as some patches require other patches!)
> 
> If you have a full-time connection, it's best you drop the $40-ish on
> a router (dime a dozen at most electronics stores and whatnot-
> Linksys and Netgear are the bigest names) to protect your system.
> Some versions of windows, even if system-level firewalling is
> configured, are vulnerable while booting- to the extent that people I
> know have had trouble cleaning a system because they get reinfected
> so fast.
> 
> Try out Mozilla, or its lightweight counterpart Thunderbird- or
> Opera.  All three have none of the security problems IE and Outlook
> do, and some pretty nifty features- popup blocking and spam filtering
> builtin, for example.  Make backups first in case the importing stuff
> goes wrong- but I've turned several people to Mozilla and haven't had
> a single person complain yet.  Huw switched a long time ago on his
> own to Mozilla- and is one very happy camper, I believe.
> 
> I don't usually mention platform specific stuff like this on the
> lists, because this isn't a computer support list. However, infected
> windows systems have become such a nuisance to the list server that
> it bears mention.  Please feel free to pass along to friends/family
> the above set of programs to clean their systems as well.
> 
> Cheers,
> Brett
> --
> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/
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