ISP != Microsoft

[computeraide]

Believe it or not, mine are set to automatic due to the fact that if it's not, I get that annoying reminder in the taskbar from Windows Security Center reminding me that my updates aren't set to automatic. And even if I close the message, it'll pop up periodically (as in a few minutes later.)

You can shut off the reminders if you'd prefer to do your own updates. You go to Control Panel -> Security Center -> (on the left sidebar) Change the way Security Center alerts me

It works in XP and Vista, afaik.

[Difdi]

"If I knew I was going to have this much trouble with it, I never would have purchased it in the first place."

A friend of mine used to run her own business, and actually said something very close to that about her office computers.

Seems she employed a few people and neither my friend, nor her employees, had ever used computers before. So they had no prior expectations about computer performance other than having used typewriters.

So the fact that the computers ran slow like molasses in winter, took 10-20 minutes to boot up, crashed randomly, corrupted document files periodically and generally were more useful as paperweights than business tools...they took as being completely normal for computers to behave that way.

I knew that wasn't right so I offered to take a look at things as a favor to my friend. They had no virus scan (too expensive a purchase to buy something that they had no idea what it did), shared disks among all the machines, no firewall of any kind, and not a week went by that someone didn't download a cute screensaver or animated calendar and load it on every machine. They also never downloaded security patches though the computers always prompted them; They all trusted random strangers, but not Microsoft!

I found 37 individual strains of spyware, trojans, worms and general malware on her computers. And because she was so inexperienced with them, it simply had never occurred to her that anything might be wrong with the computers, or that the incredibly sluggish and unreliable performance was in any way unusual for computers.

[Broomjockey]

Since I seem to be wholly outnumbered on the nice chat about security patches, could my computer have just been a fluke?

Keep in mind there are a very large number of computers out there, and a lot of them are worth more to a cracker than someone's private system. Really, unless you tick off a cracker, your biggest worry is going to be virii, since they're non-targeted. But with intelligent browsing practices, the risks are minimal from those. Also, while you can randomly find IP addresses, for most people, the time isn't worth the effort for no guaranteed return unless they're simply out to do damage to random systems for fun (aka Script Kiddies et al)

The point of the security patches is fairly simple: Why make it *easy* in the off-case someone targets your system? Unless you have a compelling reason to avoid them, you should keep things to their most current version. That includes your OS. Pederson did a great job in covering examples of compelling reasons.

[Evil Queen]

Okay, sorry guys. I guess I'm still dumb when it comes to windows computing.

[Eric the Grey]

Since I seem to be wholly outnumbered on the nice chat about security patches, could my computer have just been a fluke?

I'd have to say that safe internet practices have a lot to do with it. Most users do not practice save internet, so having automatic updates enabled is kind of line equipping them with packages of condoms. It helps keep them safer than if they didn't have them, but it's still not perfect.

For what it's worth, this particular patch is recommended even by Zone Alarm. Here is an alert we received today at work from one of our NT admins:

Latest Microsoft Security Patches break ZONEALARM - No Internet

THIS SHOULD NOT AFFECT <Company> PC’S AS WE DON’T DEPLOY ZONEALARM AND WE’VE NOT APPROVED THIS NEW PATCH YET.

< ... snipped part about company software and compatibility testing ... >

Keep this one tucked into your back pocket in case you need it over the next few weeks.

If someone you know installs the latest Microsoft Security Patches, they may no longer be able to get to the internet. Check to see if they have ZONEALARM This is specific to Microsoft KB 951748 that was released this Tuesday.

Workaround :

- Uninstall KB951748
- shutdown ZONEALARM
- temporarily set ZONEALARM Internet 'security level' to medium

Also, related to this same patch, it seems some software functions may not work correctly if pointed to 127.0.0.1 and may need to be pointed to the machine’s actual hard coded IP address to work.

Which was followed up shortly with:

Please note that even ZONEALARM is stating that this is an important patch and uninstalling it is “not acceptable”. I listed that as an option to get back quickly to the internet. Watch for more fallout on this one. Its the big deal about DNS Cache Poisoning which allows any old web site to pretend to be your Bank or Ebay or Paypal and you can’t even tell because they can take over while you’re in the middle of working with your actual “secure” web site. Every PC and every DNS system across the world will be patching against this and the fundamental change will cause a few things to break along the way. Aug 5th the hacker community will learn how to exploit this vulnerability on unpatched DNS Servers and PC’s.

I've got the updates ready to install on my Vista PC at home but haven't been in a position where I had time to reboot and get everything started back up again, so it'll wait until tomorrow at the earliest...

Of course, I don't use Zone Alarm anyway, so it may not matter...


Eric the Grey

[Mark Healey]

People should know more about their computers than they do. On the flip side, they should also need to know less. It's a tough balancing act that nobody has gotten quite right yet (no, not even Apple).

If you have any ideas on how to educate the customers, I'm all ears. Been trying to do that myself, and not been very successful.

People need to take Marks Only Computer Course You'll Ever Need ® ™ © Pat, Pend.
Lesson 1 boolean Algebra.
Lesson 2 Ummm...I'll come up with that when someone signs up and finishes Lesson 1

The other day I was in Fry's (A western electronis chain, that started as grocery stores) looking at new computers. Since the Chinese mom & pop stores all went out of business I was forced to go there. Anyway I was looking at some desktop system and asked the guy if he knew if it had any troubles running Ubuntu or Fedora. His response: "It will run any Windows program.". I really wanted to smack him right there.

[Pedersen]

The other day I was in Fry's (A western electronis chain, that started as grocery stores) looking at new computers. Since the Chinese mom & pop stores all went out of business I was forced to go there. Anyway I was looking at some desktop system and asked the guy if he knew if it had any troubles running Ubuntu or Fedora. His response: "It will run any Windows program.". I really wanted to smack him right there.

Ahhhh, Fry's. Legendary for their selection of computer gear. Also legendary for their complete lack of customer service. In all seriousness, I've never heard one person compliment Fry's customer service.

The rule of Fry's: You can buy any electronics component that can be bought at Fry's. Just don't expect anybody who works there to help you find it, or help you return/replace/fix it if it has a problem, and you'll be fine.

Still one of the most fun stores on earth. Well, for me, anyway

[Anriana]

So that's what has been going on with my computer! I just did a restore back to Tuesday and everything started working again, but it really threw me off. Forgive me for bringing work into the forum, but, do you happen to have a link or some other form of information I can get to that will help me prevent that problem from showing up again? (Feel free to send a PM, if necessary.)

Go to www.zonealarm.com and click on the yellow square. It will tell you what settings to change on zone alarm.

[Mark Healey]

Ahhhh, Fry's. Legendary for their selection of computer gear. Also legendary for their complete lack of customer service.

Unless you are buying a high ticket item. Then there is plenty of service. Just incopetent service.

The rule of Fry's: You can buy any electronics component that can be bought at Fry's.

I see that you're in New Joisy, so I imagine It's been a while since you've been to one. There component selection isn't what it used to be. I couldn't find any double sided copper clad last week.

Still one of the most fun stores on earth. Well, for me, anyway

It's the only place where you can choose between 10 different 4 port USB hubs. They have somethng like 40 different mice and 30 keyboards (and they all suck). As bad as the service is It's hard to get out of there cheap.