Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
June 21, 2009

4.  Audio Books — OverDrive Can't Find the MP3 Player

Reader Beverly also listens to audio books on her MP3 player. She has new problems loading the books, though, and wrote to ask for help...

Always looking forward to your next newsletter, thanks. I download audio books from my public library which uses Overdrive Media Console. Once downloaded you connect your MP3 player in USB port, click on Transfer in Overdrive Console and it puts book on MP3. I been doing this for a year and two months but 2 months ago it all of a sudden when I did this it said No portable player found. Also the book would go to Windows Media Player before. I have contacted Overdrive and they had me un-install Overdrive and re-install but won't work. I am on HP with Vista Home premium, IE8. So I started process of elimination, tried downloading from my HP laptop Vista Home plus my HP XP Pro and they both worked beautifully. I know I could just forget this desktop and do it on other computers but prefer to do from here besides it is bugging me why this happened. Have any ideas?
Thanks again for great newsletters.

Many libraries use the Overdrive system to control their (and your) compliance with Digital Rights Management requirements of their licenses to circulate copyrighted ebooks.

Overdrive Media Console, the audio ebook program that is installed on your computer, is free for the user. There are verrsions for Windows and for Macintosh. On Windows, it requires the use of Windows Media Player 9 or later so that it has the Digital Rights Management (copy prevention) controls in place.

There's a new version of Overdrive Media Cosole (v3.2) which adds compatibility with iPods and iPhones. That's right — the most popular MP3 player of all time is finally supported by Overdrive! Accordinng to my library, most but not all, of the audio books are compatible with iPods. In order to use iPods or iTunes, you also have to have iTunes (duh!) and QuickTime.

Although I don't use Overdrive, I suggested to Beverly to try the following process to solve her connection problem:

1. Plug the MP3 player in.
2. Go to Device Manager (wherever that is in Vista).
3. See if it shows the MP3 player as being plugged in. If it shows anything about the MP3 player, right-click on that entry and select Remove or Uninstall.
4. Reboot.
5. Now try your Overdrive downloading to the MP3 player again.

I suspect that Windows has somehow gotten confused about her MP3 player — and basically needs to have the MP3 player purged from its memory and rebooted, so it can "find" the MP3 player again.

Bev wrote back to report that she still had problems:

This is what the Zen MX shows Terry even after following your e-mail. I went to Device Manager, right clicked the Zen, uninstall, Windows automatically made me reboot. Went to Library, downloaded a book, plugged in Zen MX, opened Overdrive and clicked on Transfer and the attachment I am sending is what it says. If you have any other ideas I will happily try them but it is ok as well if you don't as I can always use my other Vista laptop. I truly appreciate your time and assistance though. I really thought what you had me do would work though. Very strange for sure. Again thank you Terry very much as I don't know anyone who would take their precious time out to assist people like you do. Have a great day. Bev

There's another thought — Bev might try uninstalling Windows Media Player, rebooting, and reinstalling it. Windows Media Player is part of the mechanism that OverDrive is using for the connection, so if WMP doesn't recogize the MP3 player, OverDrive won't either.

Readers: Here's your challenge! If you're using OverDrive, or even if you're not and have a idea, how can Bev get her main computer to recogize her MP3 player in Overdrive again?

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5.  My Computer Security Software Recommendations

I review my security software recommendations and update them for each weekly newsletter issue, if I think they need to change.

My Philosophy: Many people want to pick their most economical solution and prefer an all-in-one anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall solution. In concept, that's a great idea. In actual practice, I don' think that this type of package is likely to be the best in all the protection categories you need. Other people want to pick the best of each type program. I'm one of the these folks.

My choice of software that I am willing to recommend is driven by my search for software for me to use. I only recommend programs that I like and that I use. I will sometimes suggest alternatives to my recommendations, but I clearly note if I no longer use them.

I'm often asked for alternatives to the programs that I recommend, especially by people who want to buy one package to do everything. My choice of antivirus before I switched to Sunbelt VIPRE was ESET's NOD32, which I used for a number of years. I'm trying ESET Smart Security 4 as such an alternative on my notebook computer (my main computer). Smart Security 4 has gotten great ratings and includes antivirus and antispyware, both from their current NOD32 v4 version, and antispam and firewall. So far, I'm very impressed.

Anti-Virus

I'm often asked about several other popular anti-virus or anti-virus combination packages. Yes, I realize that they are not in my recommendation list. "Enough said..."

From 2003 through mid-2008, my personal choice was ESET's small, fast NOD32 anti-virus program, which offers a FREE 30-day evaluation license. I consider NOD32 one of the best in anti-virus protection — and it continues to get recognition andn awards. Unlike some of its competitors, ESET offers multiple-year licenses also, and includes program updates in the multiple-year license.

However, I've changed from my long-time programs NOD32 (antivirus) and CounterSpy (antispyware) to Sunbelt's new VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.

I've found that VIPRE puts even less load on my computer than the speedy combination of NOD32 and CounterSpy. I've also been impressed with the way its "deep scan" has found and eliminated risks that were stored in zip files, which is one of the latest malware email tricks.

Read more about anti-virus programs on my web site.

Related articles:

• Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
• Free Online Antivirus Scan
• NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32
• VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Review

Firewall Software

While the Windows XP firewall is much better than no firewall at all, don't count on the Windows XP firewall to meet your needs. You need a two-way firewall, which the Windows XP firewall is not!. Microsoft woke up and supplied a two-way firewall with Windows Vista.

The Windows XP firewall does not control outbound communications originating from your computer — and you should want to have control if adware/trojans/spyware or even commercial products want to talk to the Internet. Whether they are calling home or spewing spam, you want to be able to control your computer.

Do you want Windows Media Player to call home every time you play something? It does! Do you use the Search function in Windows Explorer to find things on your hard drive? Did you know that every time you search, Windows Explorer talks to Microsoft?

I didn't know that when I ran ZoneAlarm, but the Sunbelt Personal Firewall flags that to me, and I can stop it or allow it to happen. Many other programs try to call home when you run them, too.

I recommend my choice for a firewall program, which is Sunbelt Personal Firewall.

You can try the full-featured "paid version" of Sunbelt Personal Firewall free for 30 days — after that, you can register it or, if you're using it on a home non-business computer, you can let it revert to the free, lesser-function license.
Tip: Be sure to read my review of SPF for the settings I recommend.

Sunbelt Personal Firewall is regularly $19.95 (with discounts for multiple computers and/or multiple years!) for a non-expiring license for the program and includes one year of their updates subscription.

Related articles:

• The Internet Versus You
• Do I Need a Firewall Program?
• My Sunbelt Personal Firewall Review

Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware Software

CounterSpy, from Sunbelt Software, has received many kudos from the computer press for its always-running and periodic full system scans. It has been my personal choice for my PC's and my family's PC's.

Sunbelt's CounterSpy v2.5, both improved CounterSpy's performance against malware and reduced its impact on system resources and responsiveness when its scanning.

Sunbelt continues to release updated program versions — the current version is v3.1 — and there's an even newer version about to be released. Nicely, Sunbelt do NOT install the updated programs automatically. You have to use the Update process in the program, which means that you'll know that something significant has changed.

Now, I've changed from my long-time programs NOD32 (antivirus) and CounterSpy (antispyware) to Sunbelt's new VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.

I've found that VIPRE puts even less load on my computer than the speedy combination of NOD32 and CounterSpy. My computer seems to have much more pep and power than it had previously. I've also been impressed with the way its "deep scan" has found and eliminated risks that were stored in zip files, which is one of the latest malware email tricks.

Related articles:

• Fighting Against Spyware & Malware
• My CounterSpy Review
• My VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Review

Anti-spam Software

In today's Internet world, the question is not "if" you will get spam, but "how much will you get?"

I use and recommend POPFile as my first choice for handling spam. POPFile sits on your computer, between your email program and your ISP mailbox, and handles emial as it downloads.

POPFile uses a different approach to handle spam than some other programs do — it does nothing to reduce spam. It is designed as an email classification tool — you train it to recognize spam and any other type of email that you want to classify. These classifications can help you sort your emails into appropriate folders in your email program.

Sunbelt Software, who makes the anti-spyware program CounterSpy (which I use and recommend) and the firewall that I use and recommend (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) also has a well-regarded, award-winning anti-spam program called iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express. Since I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I haven't tried iHateSpam.

Mailwasher Pro would be my first choice to handle spam before it ever gets into your computer's Inbox. Mailwasher Pro uses on-line Realtime Black Lists mail servers sending spam recently, "training" by you of what you think is spam, and your own "friends" and "blacklist" lists. Note: I found that PopFile generally meets my needs and stopped using Mailwasher Pro, even though PopFile works AFTER the emails have been downloaded. If I used a dialup connection, I would be more interested in Mailwasher Pro.

Mailwasher Pro can even bounce spam messages, as if your email address was not valid, although the usefulness and appropriateness of this is questionable. There is a free version called "Mailwasher," but it omits the functions that I consider critical for this purpose -- such as safely previewing the emails safely before they ever get to your email inbox.

Related articles:

• Spam Filtering
• Keeping spam out of your Inbox
• Getting Control of Your Inbox
• How Can I Prevent spam?

Cable/DSL Router

If you have a cable modem or a DSL modem, you need to have another layer of inexpensive protection between you and the Internet. A cable/DSL router isolates your computer from direct connection to the Internet. Your computer can easily request your email, web pages, etc. through the router. The responses come back to the router and are smoothly routed to your computer. But, someone on the Internet side of the router can not initiate a connection to your computer — they can only respond to your request.

Even if you only have one computer to connect to your cable or DSL modem, I recommend that you purchase and use a cable/DSL router because of the protection it can give you against attempts to attack through some flaws in Windows itself.

A router isolates your local network, whether it is only one computer or several, from the Internet by actually making it a separate network. The router gets the "public" IP address and handles all your outbound communications and the responses to them. But, it blocks computers on the Internet side from being able to initiate communications with your computer! This will prevent you from falling prey to many worms that try to attack security holes in Windows itself.

For a wireless router, I recommend the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I'm using the relatively new version 6 of this router.

If you don't want wireless, I recommend the Linksys BEFSR41 wired router, which I also use. Either way, based on my experience, I recommend Linksys routers for price, reliability and Linksys' habit of releasing updated firmware for their products..

See these related articles:

• Wireless Security
• Wi-Fi Hotspots and Computer Security
• Wireless Networking Problems & Wireless Networking Security

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