Spyware, Malware, Adware

"March 28, 2008 (Computerworld) Hannaford Bros. Co. disclosed this week that the intruders who stole up to 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers from the grocer's systems did so by planting malware programs on servers at each of its stores in New England, New York and Florida."

I highlighted the word malware in the Computerworld article above. While most of us have heard of spyware, malware is not a very commonly used word, but you get the idea as soon as you see it. Malware is malicious software.

In all 3 cases, spyware, malware, and adware, other people are attempting to plant some program in our computer that is obviously up to no good.

In the document linked to in my March 4 post, I advocated the use of three programs: AdAware, Spybot, and Windows Defender. These are three FREE programs which when used together will enable you to keep your system free of spyware, malware, and adware.

This week I was reminded of just how valuable these tools are when I used them to clean up a customer's heavily infected machine. Between the two of them, AdAware and Spybot, more than 150 incidents were removed, and many of these were definitely what you would call malicious and serious. I am sure my customer would agree.

With the addition of Windows Defender and the regular use of Spybot and AdAware, this computer will remain trouble-free. In light of the news from Hannaford, it might be worth your while to revisit my white paper: The Best Offense is a Good Defense. This white paper includes  detailed instructions for downloading, installing, and using Spybot.

The Best Offense is a Good Defense

Router Interference?

My March 21 post about Comcast drew a surprising phone call from Comcast "Executive Offices" in Philadelphia. They had seen my post and were concerned about the fact that I may not be getting the service I should. They promised a follow-up phone call from a person who would review my account. I did get that phone call in the form of a message from a person who left her name and number. We finally connected after some telephone tag.

First I'd like to say that I was impressed and pleased to see Comcast take this step. Unfortunately, after reviewing the numbers (I had said in that post that I averaged around 5300 kbps download) I was told that my service level was where it should be and that Comcast could do nothing to improve it. In the course of the phone conversation I was told that my use of a router would have a negative impact on my experiencing their advertised download rate of 6000 kbps.

So yesterday I ran a little test. I ran a speed test 5 times with the router connected and 5 times without the router. The results surprised me. I had bought into the argument that the router would interfere with performance. It made sense to me that it would. The results of my test did not confirm this. In fact, the opposite was true.

My 5 download speeds with the router removed as measured by speedtest.net were 5250, 5231, 5324, 5255, and 5350. I thought these were amazingly consistent and averaged 5282 kbps, which is just about what I have always observed.

My 5 download speeds with the router in place as measured by speedtest.net were 5328, 5415, 5385, 5251, and 5449. These averaged 5366 kbps. As you can see, I did better with the router in place, defying all logic as I viewed it!

However, the improvement was so small that I think it can be discounted and I can conclude that, at least in my rather limited sample, the router does not interfere with performance. BTW, I ran all 10 speed tests back to back beginning at 11 AM on 3/27.

FYI, my 10 upload speeds as measured by the test were all at or within one or two of 365 kbps, with and without the router.

Now more than ever I am interested in trying to understand why I am not getting higher numbers for my download speed. I'd like to see numbers up close to the expected and advertised 6000 kbps.

The next thing I did was to leave a mesage for my new Comcast contact asking if I could swap my cable modem for the latest and greatest cable modem that Comcast provides. I expect an answer from them today. If I cannot, I may investigate buying my own modem after carefully researching the options.

I am very interested in YOUR experience with Comcast and the kind of speeds you are getting. Please let me know by clicking on "Contact the PC Doc" above right.

Internet Service Providers High Speed Internet - Burlington Telecomm

This is perhaps the best high speed internet offering in our Northeast Region of Vermont. Burlington Telecomm did it right when they built their entire infrastructure from scratch using fiber optics. Comcast and Verizon both utilized their existing copper networks, and fiber optics is much faster. The downside is, of course, you have to live in their service area to get the service.

These next 2 paragraphs come from their web site, and the link to it is below.

Broadband comes from the words "broad bandwidth." Bandwidth typically refers to how fast data flows through the path that it travels to your computer; it’s usually measured in kilobits, megabits or gigabits per second. The greater the bandwidth, the greater the amount of data that can travel in a given time period.

Burlington Telecom offers what is know as "Symmetrical Bandwidth" which means that your upload and download speeds are potentially the same. This is a huge benefit for those who send large files such as photos, music, and video out across the internet. Typically with symmetrical bandwidth outgoing e-mail leaves a much quicker rate freeing the resources of your PC for other tasks.

BT offers speeds of 3M/3M, 5M/5M, and 8M/8M to their resiential customers. Noet that due to their symmetrical bandwidth feature the download and upload speeds are the same.

If you live in their service area, you can check out the prices at this link.

Burlington Telecomm

Internet Service Providers High Speed Internet - Wild Blue

Okay, here is the second of the two satellite service providers I know of that serve Northern Vermont. I should have mentioned yesterday that I know Hughes also serves Maine, and Wild Blue does too. Check their home page and enter your zip code to see if they service your area.

Wild Blue, like Hughes, requires a satellite dish. They offer three plans that you can view at the web site link below. As with HughesNet, Wild Blue should be viewed as possibly competing with Verizon's DSL, although Verizon's Power Plan is double the speed of the fastest Wild Blue plan.

Wild Blue Satellite Internet Plans

Internet Service Providers High Speed Internet - HughesNet Satellite

Okay, so you live in Northern Vermont and can't get Verizon's DSL or Comcast high speed internet in your area. There may be other choices for you. There are two companies I am aware of that will offer satellite service at speeds far greater than dial-up but still quite a bit slower than cable (Comcast).

One of these two is HughesNet, and I know of at least 4 of their customers in Underhill. HughesNet requires a satellite dish to be installed, and I won't even attempt to get into their pricing, but I will provide you the link below that will answer many of your questions. You can take it from there.

If interested, your best bet is to view this as a step up from dial-up, and not to compare this to Comcast HSI. You'll be disappointed if you do the latter. The web site will show you the download and upload speeds for the various plans. Some of the HughesNet plans claim speeds comparable to Verizon's DSL, as you will see.

HughesNet Satellite Internet Plans

Windows XP: Going, going … gone?

This excellent Computerworld article is today's feature story on their web site. Mostly it is about not being able to buy a new copy of Windows XP at our local Best Buy, Staples, Circuit City, or whatever after a certain date. It once again, however, does show the Windows XP timeline and how XP will be supported by Microsoft through 2014. So, if you plan to run XP until 2014, and do not have your original install CDs or DVDs, you can go out any buy a fresh copy of it now - but not for long. You can keep this fresh copy on your bookshelf should the unthinkable happen (which, unfortunately, it does once in a while!) and you have a need to reinstall XP.

Windows XP: Going, going ... gone?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. What a gorgeous day here in Northern Vermont. It was sunny all day with the temps around 20. Spring is surely coming soon! I spent most of the past 2 days playing around with this guy!