Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
November 14, 2005

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Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.

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Volume 1, Number 22 -- Monday, November 14, 2005

IN THIS ISSUE:
   1.   FamilyFirst.com Picks Terry's Computer Tips as Site of the Day
   2.   Updates This Week
   3.   More on the Sony BMG music CD rootkit problem
   4.   Followup: Atomic Clock Sync
   5.   Getting a New Wireless Router
   6.   Copying your Firefox Bookmarks to Another Computer
   7.   Maps on the Web
   8.   Comments from Terry's Computer Tips Readers
   9.   Shareware/Freeware Pick of the Week
   10.   Recommend Terry's Computer Tips to Your Friends
   11.   Send me some email!

Welcome to the Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.  This free, emailed newsletter includes a special "Just for Subscribers" article, an announcement that the new issue of Terry's Computer Tips has been published online, and the table of contents for the issue.

The emailed newsletter is sent weekly to individuals who have subscribed to the newsletter, have received an email confirmation notice that required them to confirm their subscription request, and who confirmed their request.

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1.  FamilyFirst.com Picks Terry's Computer Tips as Site of the Day

My Terry's Computer Tips web site ( www.TerrysComputerTips.com ) was picked by FamilyFirst.com to be their web site of the day for Thursday, November 10, 2005. Family First has been the web's leading site for family-friendly web site reviews since 1995. Their database of over 2000 "family first" site reviews is part of the World Village ( www.worldvillage.com ) family of web sites.

This June, I created my www.TerrysComputerTips.com site from computer articles I had written over the years, many of which were on my www.TerryStockdale.com site at the time. Of course, I have continued to write many more articles and expand the site significantly since then.

I also started my weekly email Terry’s Computer Tips newsletter in June. The earlier issues are all available in the site’s newsletter archives. Now, of course, the weekly email newsletter still continues. The email newsletter acts as an announcement of the new online issue, it has special "Just For Subscribers" articles and has the table of contents for the online issue.

I was excited to get the call last week from Family First's editorial manager. He called to let me know that Terry's Computer Tips would be their Site of the Day today -- and to warn me that I was about to get a lot of traffic to my web site.

A warning like that could have been very important, depending on where the site was hosted and under what terms. A surge in traffic at some web hosts could result in the site going off-line, while at other web hosts, the site owner could be presented with a surprise charge for exceeding the allowed throughput.

Fortunately, with my Powwweb account, I don't have either of those problems. I have up to 5 GB storage available to me and up to 10 GB per day for throughput on the site, all within the one $93.24 per year hosting package. Powweb easily handled the traffic surge.

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2.  Updates Last Week

Microsoft:

• Security Update for Windows XP (KB896424)
  Typical download size: 958 KB , 1 minute
  A remote code execution security issue has been identified in the Graphics Rendering Engine that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise your Windows-based system and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
• Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - November 2005 (KB890830)
  Download size: 1.2 MB , less than 1 minute
  After the download, this tool runs once to check your computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove any infection found. If an infection is found, the tool will display a status report the next time you start your computer. A new version of the tool will be offered every month. If you want to manually run the tool on your computer, you can download a copy from the Microsoft Download Center or run an online version from microsoft.com. This tool is not a replacement for an anti-virus product. To help protect your computer, you should use an anti-virus product.
• Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB907492)
  Download size: 3.1 MB , less than 1 minute
  This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in November 2005.
• Update for Office 2003 (KB907417)
  Download size: 225 KB , less than 1 minute
  Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and for Microsoft Office Word 2003. This update corrects a potential problem in which an add-in, a smart tag, or a smart document may not load if it uses the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

Firefox (web browser):  None.

Eudora (email):  Eudora now has a public beta of Eudora version 7 (7.0.0.16). I'm using it and have had no new issues. The one new feature that jumps out is a search box on the tool bar. From it, I can search the web, search Eudora (meaning all my Eudora filers), or search mailfolder (meaning the currently selected mail folder. Pretty cool option. This search links into and opens the pre-existing Find Messages function (with the magnifying glass) -- it's just a little easier to use for most searches. Since it opens the regular find messages function, I can fine-tune the search easily, too.

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3.  More on the Sony BMG music CD rootkit problem

Last week, I wrote about Sony BMG's new copy-protected music CDs. Twenty CDs, in multple music genres, have been identified as using First4Internet's XCP technology to install rootkits on their CD customer's Windows PCs, in addition to installing the player software that the CD says is required. There were a number of new developments last week on this front.

First, there are allegations that Sony's player software is not really required and that many Windows music players can play the Sony CDs that are protected with the "XCP" copy protection technology. If so, this would be very bad news for Sony -- there are reports that Sony will have violated certain California criminal laws regarding spyware and adware, should it have done this.

Second, Mark Russinovich found that the music player "calls home" -- it contacts a Sony site across the Internet each time the player is used. The purpose is to download new advertising banners. Sony claimed that the music player did not call home. Whether it passed any other identifying data, it has to have passed the customer's IP address in order to actually get a response from Sony's servers.

Third, Sony's "rootkit remover" decloaking patch is dangerous to Windows systems as it is written. The problem is that the XCP system installed a driver into Windows and subverts some of the system calls. Unfortunately, the "remover" (which does not remove the copy protection system itself) tries to changes Windows again while Windows is up and running. The proper way to do this is with a special instruction to Windows that basically says "next time you boot, don't load this driver, and then delete these files."

Fourth, as Mark Russinovich reports in that same article, Sony has set up a horrific, anti-privacy system for its customers to actually get the "remover." You have to go to a specific web page to request the rootkit remover, including indentifying which CD you have and where you bought it. Your valid email address is also required here -- required so that they can send you a followup email. But, wait, their privacy policy says that they will add you to their marketing mailings lists, too. So, you do that and get your email - which now lets you request an actual remover for the DRM system. It also gives you a link where you can download the rootkit remover.

OOPS! Back up a step. You have to request the rootkit remover from the same computer that has the rootkit installed -- when you request the rootkit remover, Sony's web page uses creates a unique hardware-based identifier for that computer -- and the rootkit remover you download will only work on the computer that matches that identifier. Need to use it again in a couple months on the same or another computer -- you'll have to remember the rootkit and through the whole process again to get another copy.

Amazingly, Thomas Hesse, President of Sony BMG's global business, had this to say on the subject during an interview broadcas on National Public Radio's Morning Edition show last Monday: "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"

Is Sony so totally clueless about computer security and privacy?

Last week, three trojans were identified that specifically target the security holes created by Sony's music CD rootkits.

By the way, Sony's copy-protection system is reported to run all the time, hopefully just until you reboot, once you have used their music player. Apparently, it works by inserting random noise into the output of the CD and DVD player. Anyone see a problem here? What happens when you play other music CDs?

Computer security firm Computer Associates has now listed the Sony rootkit in their online database.

Sony BMG has now announced that they will no longer use the XCP copy protection system. No word, yet, on recall and replacement of the CDs they have sold.

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4.  Followup: Atomic Clock Sync

While I was running a full system scan of my computer, Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy complained about Atomic Clock Sync. It referred to "Adw.BestOffersNetworks.AtomicClockSync Adware" and classified it as "Risk: High." Counterspy's description says the application is not a threat, but that it is installed with several adware threats. After some quick cross-checking, I updated last week's online newsletter (article 3) to alert readers.

I have seen nothing unusual in my system's operation. No popups, no unusual ads, no browser hijacking, nothing. CounterSpy only reacted during a system scan. Counterspy did not react based on any system activity, nor did anything else. ZoneAlarm, of course, reacted when I told Atomic Clock Sync to "ping" the server. Note that Counterspy flagged this as "adware" not "spyware."

I also checked with two other anti-spyware products: XoftSpy and Microsoft Antispyware (beta) software packages. Neither identified anything wrong with the Atomic Clock Sync files. I also rechecked Download.com -- and note that their banner at the top claims "Safe, Trusted and Spyware Free." Is it adware, though? If so, a lot of folks have been fooled -- it's available from PCWorld.com, download.com, Winsite.com, Snapfiles.com, PCMag.com, and other places.

Perhaps an earlier version of Atomic Clock Sync did have adware included; perhaps not. I did some more internet searching and found Ed Bott's blog entry at http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000151.html, where he was talking about adware.

He quotes Ben Edelman of Harvard University, who was testifying before the Federal Trade Commission about adware, and who mentioned Atomic Clock Sync as an alternative to similar programs that install adware:

For example, Atomic Clock Sync 2.69 is an automatic computer clock synchronization program, but unlike WhenU's ClockSync and Gator's Precision Time, Atomic Clock Sync does not require that users accept popup advertisements. Similarly, Weather Watcher 5.010 provides local weather monitoring and reporting, and unlike WhenU's WeatherCast and Gator's Precision Time, Weather Watcher entails no popups.

In other words, Ben Edelman identified Atomic Clock Sync as one of the good programs. For now, I'm not worried about it.

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Continued in Part 2

Volume 1, Number 22 -- Monday, November 14, 2005
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Copyright © 2005 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.