May 28, 2009 | Posted by chris
I recently have been playing around with Windows 7 and am beyond impressed so far with its features and speed. It runs great on my Thinkpad T43 with only 1.5GB of memory.
I have heard of it running smooth on Celeron 933 systems too though!
Anyway if you happen to have the Intel 915 Chipset you won’t find much support for Vista let alone Windows 7. You will find that the supplied drivers simply do not cut it. I have come up with a solution that at least works on my system and will help others I hope.
After the Windows 7 upgrade I was pretty giddy and upbeat with this brand new OS, but soon realized what a headache it was trying to find a solution to the lackluster driver situation. No help from Microsoft or Intel and the forums did not have the answers I needed either.
After some hours of research I finally came across a driver package from HP that supports the 915 chipset. The reason for the Vista driver is simply that my games, videos and other graphics intensive applications worked just fine with Vista SP2.
After extracting the files, running the setup.exe in Compatibility Mode of Vista, my games run smoother now and no BSOD’s or any other driver related errors or problems. For steps downloading and installing the drivers follow below.
1. Download SP34749.EXE
2. Once file is downloaded extract files to location of your choice
3. Find the setup.exe within the extracted files and than right click and choose Properties and than Compatibility. Make sure the options shown in the screenshot are selected.
That is pretty much it.
Make sure when you are done installing the new driver to also set Compatibility on the application or game you are having issues with. I found setting them to “Windows Vista” work just fine.
Categories: Software | 
Tags: Drivers, Intel 915, windows 7 | 
3 Comments »
May 27, 2009 | Posted by chris
How many times have you wondered if a certain email that were given or that you found was valid or not? Well this site below can help you determine if it really is or not.
Email Checker
Categories: General | Tags: DNS, Email, Mail Server | 1 Comment »
April 28, 2009 | Posted by chris
Microsoft has released the latest Service Pack for Office 2007. If you use Office 2007, be sure to update with Windows Updates or click here to download the stand alone installer.
of some big areas of improvement that are included in SP2.
Microsoft Office Access
- Lets you export reports to Microsoft Office Excel.
- Supports memo fields in the mailing label wizard for addresses.
- Fixes issues that occur in the import data wizards, in report printing and previewing, in macros, in Excel integration, and in date filters.
- Includes updates to Access Developer Extensions.
Microsoft Office Excel
- Improves the charting mechanism in Excel 2007. This includes better parity with Office 2003, improved robustness, and targeted performance improvements.
- Adds a chart object model to Word and to PowerPoint.
- Improves shapes that are surfaced in Excel. This includes better parity with Office 2003 and targeted performance improvements.
- Improves the method by which Excel prints graphical content, especially when it prints to PCL printers.
- Adds conversion rates to the Excel Euro Currency Tools add-in for the Maltese lira and for the Cypriot pound.
Microsoft Office Groove
- Improves Groove 2007 form tools. In particular, international users in certain locales will benefit from correct interpretation of spaces for digit grouping in currency values.
- Limits the number of file-sharing workspaces to 64 to make sure that all workspaces can be synchronized. This limit applies only to adding new file-sharing workspaces. If you already have more than 64 file-sharing workspaces, you can continue to use them.
- Optimizes synchronization reliability.
Microsoft Office InfoPath
- Fixes for overall security and stability in InfoPath 2007
- Provides improved compatibility between InfoPath forms and other Microsoft products, such as Groove and Outlook.
Microsoft Office OneNote
- Improves SharePoint sync functionality. This helps reduce the load on SharePoint servers, and it helps produce fewer sync errors.
- If the OneNote tray notification icon was previously dismissed, the icon will now appear in the notification area. Additionally, this icon can now be dismissed only in the Options dialog box in OneNote.
- Adds support for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for the Japanese language.
Microsoft Office Outlook
- Performance improvements that apply to the following general responsiveness areas:
- Startup
Removes lengthy operations from initial startup.
- Shutdown
Makes Outlook exit predictably despite pending activities.
- Folder View and Switch
Improves view rendering and folder switching.
- Calendar improvements
Improves underlying data structures and the general reliability of calendar updates.
- Data file checks
Greatly reduces the number of scenarios in which you receive the following error message when you start Outlook:
- Improvements to Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
There are now fewer duplicated items.
- Object Model improvements
Now contains many customer-driven fixes.
Microsoft Office PowerPoint
- Improves the control of shape editing while you are zoomed in.
- Provides faster file resaves.
- Improves image quality after files are saved in the .jpeg, .png, and .gif formats.
- Provides better text representation when the representation is saved in earlier PowerPoint formats.
- Fixes several printer-specific problems.
- Provides better compatibility with Explorer preview in Windows Vista.
- Provides fuller integration of the Microsoft Office Excel Chart Object Model.
Microsoft Office Publisher
- Improves the printing of double-sided postcards and small booklets.
- Fixes issues in print preview, in HTML layout of grouped objects in Internet Explorer 8, in tab-stop, in e-mail, in content library, and in Design Checker.
Microsoft Office Word
- Improves the fidelity of .pdf and .xps output.
- Improves Outlook performance.
- Provides fuller integration of the Office Excel Chart Object Model.
Changes that affect multiple products
File formats
- OpenDocument Format (ODF) support
- Extensible File Formats: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint now include a converter interface that lets you plug third-party custom file formats into these Office programs. A developer can create a converter for files of a particular extension. When this converter is installed on a user’s computer, the custom file format effectively behaves like a built-in file format. Specifically, users can open files of this format and save them by using the Open or Save UI. They can even set the custom format as their default file format. For more information, visit the following MSDN Web site:
- Built-in Save As PDF/XPS support
PDF/XPS support is built into SP2 for Word, for Excel, and for PowerPoint. Users no longer have to download the add-in separately.
Office graphics
- Improves application performance when many graphic objects are present, especially for Excel 2007.
- Fixes several issues that involve the object model. These fixes let you better achieve parity with Office 2003 when the object model works with graphical objects.
- Increases printing fidelity of graphical objects in many scenarios.
- A new XML-based representation of each SmartArt graphic in a document is saved with the file to optimize interoperability. This new feature uses the standard DrawingML markup to describe the visual properties of the SmartArt graphic.
- Improves the Edit Points feature. This enables more accurate shape editing and increased interoperability with Office 2003.
Office security
- Fixes certain scenarios in which documents in trusted locations were treated as non-trusted.
- Improves several cryptographic or encryption scenarios.
- Provides a method to ignore time stamping expiration.
- Provides better security warnings when a certificate is revoked.
- An updated password algorithm that is in sync with the document ISO requirements.
- Provides an ISO-OOXML-compliant password verifier for Excel, for PowerPoint, and for Word.
- Enables smarter AVAPI blocking for encrypted macros.
Categories: Software, Updates | Tags: microsoft, Microsoft Office, Office 2007, Patch, Updates | No Comments »
April 16, 2009 | Posted by chris
WordPress Firewall – Referred to me by a good friend Mark @ Keenpath. This plugin is highly recommended and can block and detect Transversal Attacks,SQL Injection Attacks, WordPress-specific SQL injection attacks,remote arbitrary code injection and also blocks executable file uploads.
Possible attack alert reports are sent conveniently to your email address. Sometimes there are false positives and you can always Whitelist those as needed.
Login Lockdown – Protect your WordPress blog from malicious login attempts. This plugin allows you to lock out possible intruders by applying a WordPress lockout policy.
WP Security Scan – This plugin allows you to scan our WordPress install for any security issues or vulnerabilities and advises on how to correct findings.The plugin checks the following
-passwords
-file permissions
-database security
-version hiding
-WordPress admin protection/security
-removes WP Generator META tag from core code
Admin-SSL – This plugin secures login page, admin area, posts, pages – whatever you want – using Private or Shared SSL
- Secures WordPress Login and Admin Pages
- Supports All SSL Setups (Private and Shared)
- Encrypts cookie contents
- Compatible with all versions of PHP 4 and 5
Replace WP-Version – If you’re running an older version of WordPress, anyone can view source to see what attacks might work against your blog. This plugin replace the WP-version with a random string. This will remove this information that can be used against your blog.
Categories: Security | Tags: Plugins, Security, Wordpress | No Comments »
April 14, 2009 | Posted by chris
Storm Worm – The Storm botnet was first identified around January 2007 and according to many sources has said to have infected roughly around 150,000 – 1 million computer systems around the Globe. It was also said at one point that the Storm worm accounted for 8% of all malware infected PC’s
First detected on the Internet in January 2007, the Storm botnet and worm are so-called because of the storm-related subject lines its infectious e-mail employed initially, such as “230 dead as storm batters Europe.” Later provocative subjects included, “Chinese missile shot down USA aircraft,” and “U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has kicked German Chancellor Angela Merkel
At certain points in time, the Storm worm used to spread the botnet has attempted to release hundreds or thousands of versions of itself onto the Internet, in a concentrated attempt to overwhelm the defenses of anti-virus and malware security firms.
Towards the end of 2008 Storm lost much of its steam and was pronounced dead by many security firms. Microsoft claims to have helped considerably in the effort of stopping the Storm worm with its Malicious Removal Tool.
Slammer\Sapphire Worm - The SapphireSlammer Worm was the fastest computer worm in history. As it began spreading throughout the Internet, it doubled in size every 8.5 seconds. It infected more than 90 percent of vulnerable hosts within 10 minutes.
The worm began to infect hosts slightly before 05:30 UTC on Saturday, January 25. Sapphire exploited a buffer overflow vulnerability in computers on the Internet running Microsoft’s SQL Server or MSDE 2000 (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine). This weakness in an underlying indexing service was discovered in July 2002; Microsoft released a patch for the vulnerability before it was announced The worm infected at least 75,000 hosts, perhaps considerably more, and caused network outages and such unforeseen consequences as canceled airline flights, interference with elections, and ATM failures. Several disassembled versions of the source code of the worm are available
Sapphire’s spreading strategy is based on random scanning — it selects IP addresses at random to infect, eventually finding all susceptible hosts.
3.) Blaster Worm - Also known as W32/Lovs.an.worm.a, Win32.Poza.A, Lovsan, WORM-MSBLAST.A, W32/Blaster-A, W32/Blaster, and Worm.Win32.Lovesan.
Discovered on August 11, 2003, the Blaster computer worm adversely affected Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP. The worm attempted to download the msblast.exe file to the Windows Directory and then execute it. It also attempted to conduct a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on the Microsoft Windows Update Web server to stop the user from applying a patch on his or her computer against the DCOM RPC vulnerability. Within 24 hours of its detection, Blaster had infected more than 300,000 computers. Symantec Security Response downgraded the threat of the Blaster Worm to a Category 2 from a Category 3 severity rating as of February 26, 2004.
Sasser Worm – Sasser was first noticed and started spreading on April 30, 2004. This worm was named Sasser because it spreads by exploiting a buffer overflow in the component known as LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service) on the affected operating systems. The worm scans different ranges of IP addresses and connects to victims’ computers primarily through TCP port 445
Microsoft’s analysis of the worm indicates that it may also spread through port 139. Several variants called Sasser.B, Sasser.C, and Sasser.D appeared within days (with the original named Sasser.A).
- The effects of Sasser include the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) having all its satellite communications blocked for hours and the U.S. flight company Delta Air Lines having to cancel several trans-atlantic flights because its computer systems had been swamped by the worm.
- The Nordic insurance company If and their Finnish owners Sampo Bank came to a complete halt and had to close their 130 offices in Finland. The British Coastguard had its electronic mapping service disabled for a few hours, and Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Post, and the European Commission also all had issues with the worm.
- The X-ray department at Lund University Hospital had all their four layer X-ray machines disabled for several hours and had to redirect emergency X-ray patients to a nearby hospital
Conficker – A computer worm targeting the Microsoft Windows operating system that was first detected in October 2008. An early variant of the worm propagated through the Internet by exploiting a vulnerability in the network stack of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 Beta, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta that was discovered earlier that month
- Conficker is believed to be the most widespread computer worm infection since SQL Slammer in 2003. The initial rapid spread of the worm has been attributed to the number of Windows PCs (estimated at 30%) which have yet to apply the Microsoft patch for the MS08-067 vulnerability.
- By January 2009, the estimated number of infected computers ranged from almost 9 million to 15 million Antivirus software vendor Panda Security reported that of the 2 million computers analyzed through ActiveScan, around 115,000 (6%) were infected with Conficker.
- Intramar, the French Navy computer network, was infected with Conficker on 15 January 2009. The network was subsequently quarantined, forcing aircraft at several airbases to be grounded because their flight plans could not be downloaded.
- The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence reported that some of its major systems and desktops were infected. The worm has spread across administrative offices, NavyStar/N* desktops aboard various Royal Navy warships and Royal Navy submarines, and hospitals across the city of Sheffield reported infection of over 800 computers.
- On 2 February 2009, the Bundeswehr, the unified armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany reported that about one hundred of their computers were infected.
- A memo from the British Director of Parliamentary ICT informed the users of the House of Commons on 24 March 2009 that it had been infected with the worm. The memo, which was subsequently leaked, called for users to avoid connecting any unauthorized equipment to the network.
- The worm is believed to have gained a foothold on the university’s network through an infected USB device, said a spokesman with the university’s school of health sciences. The Conficker worm managed to infect about 800 computers at the University of Utah last week, prompting the school to block Internet access temporarily to contain the infection.
Important lessons can be learned from these outbreaks. Make sure to keep your virus definitions up to date and patch your systems!
Categories: Security | Tags: Malware, Security, Virus, windows 7, Worms | No Comments »
April 13, 2009 | Posted by chris
I recently came across an interesting piece of software called Adeona created by the University of Washington’s Computer and Science Engineering department.
This software is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary or a central service. Best of all this service is free and easily removed if needed unlike Lo-Jack.
Adeona is designed to use the Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner’s laptop. The client continually monitors the current location of the laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) that can be used to identify its current location. At the same time, it is easy for an owner to retrieve location information if the need arises.
OSX,Windows XP\Vista and Linux versions available. You can install retrieval tools on another PC to pull information of the missing laptop if needed.
The OSX version is by far the most impressive boosting the ability to take snapshots of the perps using the built in webcam and using the isightcapture
Give it a try! Im sure I will be installing this on my laptops. (Can be used on Desktops,Servers etc too!)
Categories: Security | Tags: Adeona, Laptop Tracking, Mac, Open Source, Windows | No Comments »