Telecom Equipment & Consulting

Bits from Bill: Dangerous Downloads on Legitimate Websites & Search Engines

2011-09-08T09:19:00.001-04:00

Bits from Bill: Dangerous Downloads on Legitimate Websites & Search Engines:

'via Blog this'

I've often recommended using CNet's Download.Com site as a safe source for downloads but this points out a subtle but important caveat to that recommendation. When searching Download.Com, the first several listings on the search results page will invariably be "sponsored" matches, which means they're paid ads and following those links may lead you to the a malware or "scareware" site that will infect your system. One obvious solution is to skip over these "sponsored" matches, even if they look legitimate. Another technique is to use the 'SORT BY' option to re-order the screen. This usually dumps the paid ads and gets you to the real sources.

Good luck,

Harry

(FAQ) Mitel SX200 Why isn't my call accounting receiving call records?

2010-07-14T08:57:00.001-04:00

This is a common issue and I wrote this FAQ for the Mitel Forum on the My Phone Techs
for anyone troubleshooting this problem.

(FAQ) Mitel SX200 Why isn't my call accounting receiving call records?: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Scareware and Ransomware

2010-03-19T16:36:00.002-04:00

Oh for the old days when we only had to guard our computers from viruses! Then came adware, spyware, malware, and botware. Now we have scareware and even ransomware. I've had to do some pretty extensive work recently for several clients, just to remove this stuff.

Scareware is a fake anti-virus program often picked up through spam or even by a seemingly harmless download. These programs copy a few files onto your disk which are then targeted by a fake anti-virus popup warning that "Your system has been infected with a virus. Click here to remove the infection". The popup window isn't easy to close or minimize, and will reappear when you restart your computer. It's made to look like one of the recognized antivirus programs, or even a Microsoft product, so this ploy often works. Once you've clicked the link, the "anti-virus program" removes the fake virus and loads new ones for next time. Eventually, you're convinced you have a serious problem and agree to upgrade to the paid version. Now you've handed over your credit info card and enough other stuff to make you vulnerable to identity theft. The process often continues until your computer becomes practically useless.

Unlike scareware, which Ransomware begins in much the same way but cuts to the chase, making a demand for money so you can regain use of your computer. They use proxy servers and botnets to hide their identity so your options are to pay up or scrap your machine.

So, what's the answer? Same as always, be careful what you do, where you go, and what you click. Have a good backup routine and some emergency software that can help you regain control of your machine. More on that later...

Good luck,

Harry

Free security program downloads

DECT telephones

2009-12-18T07:38:00.004-05:00

DECT telephones

DECT is an acronym for Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications. Like most acronyms, it's a way of making a simple concept sound more technical and more marketable.

Approved in 2005 by the FCC for use in the US, DECT is a new standard for cordless phones and headsets, using the 1.9GHz frequency range to connect the base and handset. It provides superior sound quality and improved range, compared to the 2.4GHz and 5.8 GHz technology which it has largely replaced.

It's primary benefits of DECT 6.0 (the current DECT version) are:

DECT devices have up to 2-3 times the range of 5.8GHz phones.
Significant improvement in sound quality
Because they operate on a different frequency range, there is no interference with wireless network devices, a major problem with 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz phones.
DECT devices are more resistant to interference from many sources of static and noise, such as microwaves, flourescent lights, and copiers.
because of the separation of frequencies. rejection of interference and static from other wireless devices.
Extended battery life and talk time due to DECT's improved efficiency

Remote Telnet & FTP

2009-06-11T12:04:00.002-04:00

OK, I admit it, I'm old... but I'm not so old that I can't learn new tricks.

Instead of being dragged kicking and screaming into the new era of telecom, I'm busily scratching and clawing my way up to the next level. That includes such things as domain name resolution, gateways, subnets, and port redirection and the obligatory new alphabet soup of DHCP, TCP/IP, VLAN, and DNS.

Anyway, I'm feeling self-satisfied right now because I've just set up one of my Mitel SX200 ICP systems for both remote Telnet maintenance and remote FTP backup/restore to online storage. I'm sure that sounds absurdly basic to young techs who cut their teeth on TCP/IP. But, then again, I confuse the heck out of most of them when I talk about serial ports pinouts, ASCII characters, and ACK/NAK flow control... and I gave up on explaining the telco color code because their eyes glaze over if I go past White/Brown.

So as you read this, lift your glass to my dogged determination. And if you pass me somewhere on the Information Superhighway and notice my left-turn signal blinking, be kind enough to Text me a gentle reminder.

Harry

ProcessQuicklink from ProcessLibrary.com

2009-05-01T09:12:00.001-04:00

ProcessQuicklink from ProcessLibrary.com

This is another excellent source of information about the inner workings of your computer. Most of us know how to pull up Task Manager and the 'Applications' tab is pretty helpful in sorting out the status of the programs currently running on your system. Sometimes, just clicking 'End Process' on a balky application is enough to clear the log jam and get you back to business.

Next to 'Applications' is the 'Processes' tab. There you'll see a long list of the things that are going on in the background and sometimes you can spot the one that's hogging resources and relentlessly pushing the CPU to 100%. While some of these files have reasonable names like ' OUTLOOK.EXE', some of them are written by guys that never leave the basement unless they're running low on Mountain Dew. They name their programs things like 'btwins.exe' or 'jqs.exe' and that's not a lot of help, is it? If one of those is out of control, how do you know what you're messing with if you shut it down? And how do you know that they're even legitimate parts of the programs you want on your system?

That's where ProcessQuicklink comes in. It puts an icon beside every running process that takes you directly to it's entry in Uniblue's Process Library. There you'll find out that "btwdins.exe is a part of the Microsoft Windows Operating System which deals with Bluetooth functionality and should not be terminated" and "jqs.exe is a jqs\r belonging to Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U5\r from Sun Microsystems, Inc.\r".

As always, a little knowledge can be a bad thing. Before you start shutting down processes, be sure you know what you're messing with. It would be smart to backup anything you're working on and close any running applications. Making a Restore Point might be overkill, but it wouldn't hurt anything either.

Mike Lin's Home Page

2009-05-01T08:42:00.000-04:00

Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel

It seems that every program you load on your machine adds something new to the startup process and, before you know it, there's stuff going on you don't know about and maybe don't want happening. Your system takes longer and longer to start and seems to drag more and more as time goes on. It seems to me that anything that gives you more information or control over startup is a good thing. I've used this utility to do just that for several years and I highly recommend it.

The Startup Control Panel give you a direct look into all the different processes that load as your system starts. It's easy to access from the Windows Control Panel and it lets you selectively disable or delete them. A word of caution though: You're messing with the Registry here so be sure to know what you're doing. Creating a System Restore point before any changes would be a wise step.