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Broadband tax cancelled

With the general election campaign only 4 days old, there has already been a piece of good news for most PC users. The government’s planned tax of 50p per month on every telephone line in the country has been dropped, since there is no longer enough parliamentary time for the measure to pass in to law. The controversial tax was intended to be used to fund the roll out of fibre optic lines to rural areas, in order to improve broadband speed outside of urban areas. The Conservative party, who opposed the move, have suggested that surplus BBC licence fees could be used to fund the deployment of fast Internet connections.

However, it looks like the government will be getting through the Digital Economies bill, which is intended to curb software and media piracy on the Internet, by sending out warnings to persistent file sharers, and allowing the government to block access to websites that facilitate file sharing. If persistent file sharers don’t mend their ways after a written warning, they may have their Internet connection throttled to slow down performance, or even be temporarily disconnected. So where does this leave the average PC user? As long as you don’t illegally share files or live in a rural area, it means that your phone bill will not be rising too much in the near future.

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Get the latest updates for Microsoft Security Essentials in the event of Internet problems

If you have installed Microsoft’s latest security tool –called Security Essentials – you will find that the tool downloads the latest updates automatically from the Web. However, if there is a problem with your PC’s Internet connection (potentially caused by a virus infection) then you will need to download the spyware definitions manually on another PC, and then install them on your system. You can do so as follows:
On your Internet connected PC, download the latest Security Essentials update file from the appropriate link:

32-bit Windows versions: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=87342 
64-bit Windows versions: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=87341 

Save the downloaded file to a USB memory stick or removable drive.
Connect the drive containing the update file to the PC that has Internet connection problems. Right-click on the file in Windows Explorer and choose Run as administrator (Windows 7/Vista) or Open (Windows XP).
A file extraction dialogue box will open showing the update installation progress.
Once the update process is complete, you can check that the update was applied correctly by opening Microsoft Security Essentials, clicking Update and then checking the virus and spyware definitions status.

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Create a shortcut to your network shared folders in Windows XP

One of the most useful features of a home network is the ability to access files and folders stored on other computers on your network. However, it can be a bit tricky finding the folder or file that you need on the network, as you have to navigate to the computer it is stored on, then search through the directory tree. Fortunately Windows XP allows you to quickly create a shortcut to any folder shared on your network via the Network Sharing Center, so that you can access it as quickly as a normal folder. Here’s how:
Click Start > Control Panel (if you are in the Control Panel Classic View, click Switch to Category View).
Click Network and Internet Connections.
Under See Also, click My Network Places.
Click Add a network place. The Add Network Place Wizard will start.
Click Next.
Click Choose another network location followed by Next.
Click Browse, then select the network folder that you want to create a shortcut to and click Open.
Click Next.
Enter a name for the share in the Type a name for this network place box then click Next.
Click Finish.

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Quickly repair Internet Explorer problems

If you find that Internet Explorer 7 or 8 crashes frequently, or throws up error messages while you are browsing the Web, it could mean that one or more of the system files used by IE has become corrupt. Fortunately, IE7 & 8 have a quick repair feature which allows you to reset the browser to its original settings. You can reset the system as follows:
Open Internet Explorer and click Tools > Internet Options.
Click on the Advanced tab, then click Reset.
In the Reset Internet Explorer Settings dialogue box, click Reset again to confirm the process.

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Security Alert: W32.Difupat

W32.Difupat is a virus that infects executable files in the C:\​Program Files folder in order to hide itself on your PC, and replaces the normal Internet Explorer with an infected copy. It creates the following files on infected systems:
C:\​ProgramFiles\​Internet Explorer\​bootloader.dll 
C:\​ProgramFiles\​Internet Explorer\​detoured.dll
C:\​ProgramFiles\​Internet Explorer\​funcition.dll
In addition to creating these files, it also creates the following registry entries:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\​SOFTWARE\​Microsoft\​Windows NT\​CurrentVersion\​Winlogon\​Notify\​getpass\​"DllName" = "bootloader.dll"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\​SOFTWARE\​Microsoft\​Windows NT\​CurrentVersion\​Winlogon\​Notify\​getpass\​"Logon" = "OnEventShutDown"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\​SOFTWARE\​Microsoft\​Windows NT\​CurrentVersion\​Winlogon\​Notify\​getpass\​"Shutdown" = "OnEventShutDown"
Finding these files or these registry settings is an indication that you are infected with this virus. Before removing the infection, backup your registry following the steps in article R 11 of your main Windows Advisor manual, or here: http://www.windowsadvisor.co.uk/reg_backup.html
Press [Windows Key] + [R], type REGEDIT and click OK.
Navigate to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\​SOFTWARE\​Microsoft\​Windows NT\​CurrentVersion\​Winlogon\​Notify\​getpass
Delete the registry entry: DllName = "bootloader.dll"
Delete the registry entry: Logon = "OnEventShutDown"
Delete the registry entry: Shutdown = "OnEventShutDown"
Exit the Registry Editor.

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Whats coming up in the world of IT: Firefox fixes 10 year old security problems

Developers of the Firefox web browser claim to be close to fixing a security problem that has plagued every major web browser for the last 10 years. The vulnerability makes it possible for a website owner to discover the web browsing history of every person who visits his site, and compile a list of all previously visited links for each user. This is due to the fact that browsers store the history of each site visited in order to be able to display links to previously visited sites in a different colour to links that have never been visited (usually purple and blue respectively). However, curing this problem has proved to be a major headache, and impossible to fix without making web browsers run very slowly, or breaking the way the Internet works.

The Firefox developers, while not completely eliminating the problem, are planning to introduce changes to their browser to make it much harder for a malicious site to access a user’s browsing history. The fix hasn’t yet made it in to the latest version of Firefox yet, but if you are a Firefox user, the NoScript add-on should also protect against the problem by blocking malicious scripts designed to access browsing history. You can get NoScript here:

http://noscript.net/