Recent Posts

6876

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Quick Serial Number Copy

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 01, 2005, 09:30 AM »

I think any software that comes with 'sample' serial numbers would make me suspicious of what was going on behind the scenes ?

Mouser - I quite like that idea - in addition to the basic registration details it would be useful to store the following info for each piece of software:

1) Source website URL
2) Support forum/website URL
3) Contact email addresses (sales and support)
4) Contact phone number if telephone support is available
5) Purchase/billing source URL (eg. Digital river/Element5/RegNow type processing services) & Possibly login details (user name/password)
6) Puchaser receipt number and date

6877

Mouser's Zone / Is it just me or has the forum spellcheck ceased to function?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 01, 2005, 07:16 AM »

Just notice this morning that Spell Check no longer seems to do anything ???

6878

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Quick Serial Number Copy

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 01, 2005, 07:13 AM »

OK I see what you are getting at - preumably I would have to store a copy of AutoClip in each applications download folder with it's own INI file, otherwise I would just have a list of scripts as long as your arm

I know this is what I asked for but I think I am beginning to prefer the neat DB solution PhilKC has been working on. That has the merit that all the serials are stored in one place and are easily identified.

6879

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Quick Serial Number Copy

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 01, 2005, 06:49 AM »

Thanks skrommel for the suggestion, but I can't see how AutoClip would help? Presumably I would have to store all the serial numbers with associated abbreviations. Trouble is I have hundreds of them and it would be just as hard to remember the abbreviations!

6880

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Quick Serial Number Copy

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 01, 2005, 06:47 AM »

Thanks, that looks really useful.

I don't like the pop up window though - could the message "Copied to the cliboard" be suppressable or preferably just a note in the window of the item being viewed. Even better just have a copy button in the window ??

How easy would it be to allow multiple fields in the window (eg. Intervideo require 4 pieces of info to activate their software) and this could also allow serials that have to be entered in dicrete blocks of 4 or 5 characters, and don't tolerate pasting the whole thing, to be stored in an appropriate format. Each field would then need a copy button.

Another couple of useful features would be an EDIT tab and also sorting the list into alphabetical order.

Thanks though this is going to be really usefull.

6881

Best Firewall / Re: agnitum outpost v3 - the horror?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 01, 2005, 06:35 AM »

When I had calmed down enough to think rationally (and not want to hit anything) I tried again with ZA.

It is now running pretty well (I even got the free version working).

Oddly if you install the free version first and then allow it to upgrade to the full version it doesn't seem to switch on all the bells and whistles. Leaving them switched off seems to leave a decent firewall.

I think I will leave it until the end of the 15 day trial and then just use the free version, at least for the time being. I don't spend hours tweaking my firewall anyway so the basic free version should do the trick.

6882

Best Firewall / Re: agnitum outpost v3 - the horror? + ZoneAlarm ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 30, 2005, 07:19 PM »

God what a nightmare ...

I have been playing for hours with ZoneAlarm Pro and the free version ...

Strike One ...

Free version - excellent firewall ... effective in the extreme ... one tiny problem, there was no way I could connect to the outside world at all. Didn't matter what I did nothing connected. Couldn't use the documentation (that was written for the Pro version and didn't work with the free version) ... the only documentation on how to set it up was online - but since I couldn't get online to read it .....

Strike Two

Pro version 15 day demo ... talk about unstable! I might give Oupost 3 a try it can't be worse than that!!! At least it configured itself sufficiently to allow an internet connection, but it installed two processes that combined to use over 90% of CPU time permanently (even when no other programs were loaded), the number of popups for non-firewall related stuff was completely intolerable and pushed the system to instability. On four occasions I had to hit the reset button just to get control back of my system.

Strike Three - its gone

No way I'm having that crap on my system.

At the moment I am using the Windows XP SP2 built in firewall. It passes the security response tests at symantec fully so I'll use it until I can find something worth installing.

Zone Alarm have really lost the plot in my opinion. I downloaded the Firewall (not the suite) but it is so busy trying to do spyware detection and monitor your system for unusual activity (like running programs - not just accessing the internet) and a myriad of other unwanted/unneeded stuff that it really isn't worth installing. Add to that horrendous stability problems ....

Some one somewhere must produce a decent maintained firewall product ... surely ???

6883

Finished Programs / MOVE: Quick Serial Number Copy

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 30, 2005, 10:30 AM »

I don't know about others here but I have a heck of a lot of software and small utilities that requires serial numbers to be entered when installing. Usually they are buried somewhere in an email or text file and it takes a long time to do a new system install because you spend so long opeing up files and looking for numbers.

How about a little tool that does this:

(1) Create a "serial file" for a new application. This is an empty file with the serial number as its file name (would have to be manually entered when you buy the product). A suitable extension could be added to allow ...

(2) Double click on a file with a suitable extension (eg. .SERIAL) opens the app. The app reads the file name and copies it to the clipboard for pasting into the application.

That way as you add software to your library each folder would contain a .SERIAL file with the serial number. All you need to do to use it is double click and the serial number is on the clipboard ready to paste.

As an extension it would also be nice is, if the serial is broken into sections, the serial file would open to a window with the bits of the serial number ready to COPY one by one. The window would remain on top until closed.

6884

Site/Forum Features / Re: non-users can't view added images

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 30, 2005, 09:42 AM »

True. But there is a limit of 500k per attachment anyway - and you could always reduce that as it is larger than required almost all the time.

6885

Site/Forum Features / Re: non-users can't view added images

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 30, 2005, 06:14 AM »

i've updated the permissions to allow guests (people not signed up at the forum) to view attachment images; if it's abused we'll worry about it then.

-mouser (November 29, 2005, 04:29 PM)

Bit curious - how can this be abused ... surely the point of attaching images is so that people can see them ???

Can you monitor how long people look for ... how long is considered abuse ?

6886

Best Firewall / Re: agnitum outpost v3 - the horror?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 30, 2005, 06:05 AM »

Article here http://www.consumers...walls/fullstory.html is interesting. Doesn't say anything radical but although it does require some configuartion ZA free version aquits itself well against the paid for versions.

Since I am also behind a hardware firewall I think for the time being I may give ZA firewall a try - at least it is free, and is reputed to be fairly secure.

The trouble is all the major players are now going down the bloatfest route ... Zone Alarm are really pushing their suite hard, but when you look at what it tries to do you begin to wonder what CPU time is required just to manage the security. Norton and McAfee seem to be universally slated these days, whilst Trend seems to be OK on the AV front no one seems to rate its suite.

It is interesting that Outpost came out well in that article as a standalone Firewall, but they were using version 2.

Out of curiosity is the old version of Outpost still being supported, or are they insisting that users update to version 3? If they are supporting version 2 I may contact them and ask for an older version until they iron out their current problems.

6887

Best Firewall / Re: agnitum outpost v3 - the horror?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 30, 2005, 05:28 AM »

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't want to install Kerio for a month, try to work out how it works and then have to swap again to a new product. Sygate won't die instantly as of today. OK there won't be updates, but I have other security measures too and so I feel I have a few days to safely sort out a replacement.

Apart from ZoneAlarm (possible) & Norton/Symantec (which I don't want to go back to) are there any other contenders out there (that don't demand a degree in rocket science to use) ???

Anyone else got any suggestions?

6888

Best Firewall / Re: agnitum outpost v3 - the horror?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 30, 2005, 04:31 AM »

Keep us posted on what you find out ...

Trouble is I need to find a new one desperately too as Sygate dies today (I am waiting for the explosion)

6889

General Software Discussion / Re: Just how bad is IE?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 05:48 PM »

Dunno about most of you guys, but I can't count how many times I was browsing with IE looking for clipart or stupid .wav files or e-cards,etc. and a popup window came to ask me if I want to install plugin foobar.exe in order to view the website correctly, I push "NO" and voila!... My brand new plugin is installed and ready to spy on my surfing, slow down my surfing, make my surfing very insecure, etc. etc. With the re-strategizing of many companies who made such things, it not so bad (remember Gator?  ) but still, I like staying behind my Firefox and it's apparent ignorance of Activex controls and things that install when I'm not looking. Of course, it could have been AOL the whole time...
$.02

-Edvard (October 28, 2005, 10:40 AM)

I don't usually come to MS's defence but IE does now have a pretty effective popup blocker and ActiveX blocker built in. Unless you manually 'trust' Microsoft sites it won't even install MS signed ActiveX content.

If you don't like ActiveX and never want to use it it is pretty easy to completely disable all scripting within Internet Explorer - it no longer even comes with Java - you only install it if you want it (and you have to download from Sun as a third party).

If yoy want to use Internet explorer compatible sites (and there a re lots of them out there) why not use Maxthon? It is based on Internet Explorer code but security tools and usabilty are much beefed up. You can even visit Microsoft update with Maxthon with no problems. The pop up and ad blocking built in to Maxthon are much stronger and more aggressive than the basic set of tools supplied by MS but they are also configurable.

I have to confess I have dithered between Firefox / Mozilla / Explorer / Opera / Maxthon and for sheer compatability issues I have started using Maxthon these days. The fact that most people who install Firefox also install the extension "View in IE" says it all really.

Firefox / Mozilla / Opera are great browsers and long may they live but I find the incompatibility issues really annoying, plus you can no longer say that any of them are inherantly safer than the others (perhaps with the exception of Opera which has a very small user base).

The other big advantage of Maxthon for me is that most IE toolbars are compatible with Maxthon - this is particularly useful as I have a couple of toolbars that I use a lot that don't work in Firefox/Mozilla. If you want toolbar support forget Opera as it really doesn't support third party addins - a major flaw in its design (IMHO).

6890

Best Firewall / Re: agnitum outpost v3 - the horror?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 05:35 PM »

What are you using now then?

Presumably if version 3 has been released a point will come where earlier versions of OutPost will not be supported.

Is ZoneAlarm now the only real alternative?

6891

Living Room / Re: Browser Tray Switch

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 05:30 PM »

Actually I found that the particular combination of browsers I mentioned above just didn't work with BTS. I can't remember the details because I haven't used it for a while, but IIRC when Maxthon was set as default browser BTS tried to change to others but failed (ie. Maxthon remained default).

Certainly swapping IE <> Maxthon didn't seem to work - but I think that was to do with the fact that Maxthon handles the default settings separately for both browsers in its own Options Menu.

IIRC Maxthon <> Firefox changes didn't work properly either.

6892

Living Room / Re: Browser Tray Switch

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 04:01 PM »

I use it on XP SP2 and iut works fine, in a limited way.

However, I don't use it anymore as it isn't really very well behaved with the latest version of Firefox, and doesn't seem to work properly with Maxthon.

Firefox obviously uses some settings that aren't dealt with in BTS

Maxthon seems to have its own way of distinguishing whether it is the default browser or IE is (which it is based on). I found BTS got confused when using Maxthon.

6893

General Software Discussion / Re: symantec kills free sygate firewall

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 01:24 PM »

It's particularly difficult with lots of OEM systems that come with a restore disc rather than a standard Windows Installation disc. How do you get a clean install when you have to unistall loads of rubbish first (mostly Symantec stuff that doesn't fully uninstall itself)

6894

General Software Discussion / Re: symantec kills free sygate firewall

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 10:41 AM »

A rep told news.com that the products "overlapped" in the consumer market.

Also known as competition ...

Its a great shame as it was a good firewall - and I moved to get away from Symantec. It's like being tracked by a rotweiller!

Symantec obviously din't like the fact that it was low impact and expect customers to downgrade to the bloatfest that is Symantec ...

At what point are Symantec going to be challenged for predatory monopolistic practices ???

6895

Cheat Sheeter / Re: Any progress here?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 10:18 AM »

Nah ... government departments take at least 18 months to set up a think tank of highly paid cronies to consider whether it is worth considering, and to set a time table for further consideration and generate a list of the cronies' cronies to see who will be involved in the next stage of non-development (all of which must, of course, involve fact finding trips to the Cayman Islands and Borneo).

6896

Living Room / CAPITULATION: Sony Rootkit thing.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 10:14 AM »

Final outcome of this :

Sony Capitulates: see http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/

The direct link to the Sony "explanation" is here

Check if you have any of the affected CDs here to get an unprotected replacement.

2 million coasters - someone must sure like their coffee (couldn't happen to nicer guys) 

6897

Living Room / RESOLVED (+useful util) Unknown service (can't find relevant info on the web)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 09:47 AM »

I have run RR again to check this out and it does produce exactly the symtoms I am describing - a dead randomly named service with the EXE file missing, and registry entries to support the service entry. I think I can breathe easily again.

I watched the TEMP folder and TaskManager while RR was running and the file is created and loaded as a servive. According to the file properties it is another instance of RootkitRevealer.

Useful utility ....
~~~~~~~~~~

If it is of use to other people there is a utility in the MS Windows 2003 Resource Kit (free download, definitely worth having, from MS website) which is useful for getting rid of unwanted service entries, and removes the need to edit the registry. This resource kit is compatible with WinXP and Win2003 32-bit versions only. Win2k has a Resource Kit but it isn't free.

The command is SC.EXE (not a helpful name) and the syntax is:

SC.EXE DELETE <service_name>

SC.EXE does a lot more too, open a DOS window and try SC.EXE /? for a full list, or look at the help file.

If you have Windows 2000 you need to delete this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<service_name>

6898

Cheat Sheeter / Re: Any progress here?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 09:07 AM »

Cooo ...where did you lose the 5% ? 

6899

Site/Forum Features / Re: non-users can't view added images

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 07:53 AM »

It's a pain to have to post images somewhere else - though obviously bandwidth & storage is a potential issue in the long term.

Maybe it would be better to have a default time limit on images posted generally, say 60 days, and then they are deleted. If some are essential for future coherence of the thread than perhaps that setting could be over ridden by Mouser (or anyone else he wants to give rights to).

6900

Living Room / Re: Unknown service (can't find relevant info on the web)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 29, 2005, 07:50 AM »

It would be ironic if it weren't for the sleepless nights wondering who was going to use my credit card this time!!! It has happened before - but that was related to two companies I used being hacked or employees stealing info. One of those ran up a debt of over £1500 in Vegas (~$2500) before the card company spotted it wasn't likely to be me!

Before people wonder what I have been up to for this to happen ... I only use a credit card online on sites that use a known trusted, secure payment method - but obviously it isn't totally foolproof !! If I come across small companies that are selling software and apparently doing their own card processing I give them a wide berth 'cos it is difficult to know if they really can be trusted. Most small companies use DigitalRiver, Element5, RegSoft etc.