March 2006

Problems with Windows Defender Update Process

For the last week or so, I have been getting a reminder that Windows Defender needs to update its signature file. I've tried to update it countless times, but it never works. After some research I discovered that this is a fairly common problem. The current signature file needs to be removed.

Use the following steps to remedy the problem:

1. Click Start, click Run, type: Msiexec /x {A5CC2A09-E9D3-49EC-923D-03874BBD4C2C}

2. Click OK when it asks if you want to uninstall..

3. Open Windows Defender and check for new definitions:

Click the Help options arrow next to the Help icon.

Click About Windows Defender.

Click Check for Updates.

That should do the job.

Spyware Fix for WinFixer 2006, Amaena, Vundo, Blackworm, Etc.

There I was minding my own business, checking my gmail account, when a popup appeared. It warned me that I had a virus named blackworm. It said that a product called Anti-Spyware would fix all of my problems. I have a pop-up blocker and was a little surprised to get one. I hadn't seen one in months. Anyway, in order to not be a victim of blackmail, I attempted to close down the offensive popup. Crap! No matter where I clicked on the screen, the popup wouold not close and informed me that it would just go ahead and download the program that would solve my problems. A <cntl><alt><del> shut ti down - or so I thought. Sometime later, the dreaded pop-up appeared again. Also, somewhere along the line, I started getting ominous warning from Windows Security center. They looked real enough, but who knows? I had never seen such a message before. To make matters worse, my computer started running sloooowly, hanging up while printing, and refusing to shut down. Damn! I made sure Norton had the latest anti-virus files and ran a full scan. Nothing. A little searching of Google yielded the following site:

http://forum.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_virus&message.id=50366

After reading all that, I went to:

http://www.atribune.org/

and downloaded VundoFix.exe and run it. My problems were solved.

Conclusions:

1) Blackmail is alive and well.

2) Norton Anti-Virus is worthless.

3) Sometimes the best things in life are free (even though I decided to make a donation).

Source for Dialogic Cards for Win-911

This is an alternate source for dialogic boards for Specter Instruments Win-911 software.

I haven't purchased any here, but they appear to be the same Intel boards. Used boards are also available.

http://www.tti.net/computer-telephony/dialogic.html