The Spazz Talks About...

Dear Readers,

Once every 4 months I check my computer for virus using
an online service(free)as a precautionary measure and to check my regular anti-virus program has not skipped anything.

I am aware there many of these services out on the net.
I have and am using the Eset service(links and info bellow).

Why Eset? The other services would not run on Opera or Firefox or Chrome, only on Microsoft Internet Explorer(I use this browser for one per cent(%01)of all browsing time).

You will be asked to download
Step .1) ESET Smart Installer
Step .2)Configure the scanner(see pictures)
Step .3)uninstall scanner
Step .4)delete the ESET Smart Installer from hard drive

http://www.eset.com

Online scanner web page:
http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

System Requirements

Operating Systems :

Microsoft Windows NT
Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows Vista
Internet Browser:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or latter
Support for alternative web browsers (Firefox, Opera, Netscape, Safari and others)
ActiveX Controls
Memory

32 MB
Disk Space:

Minimum - 15 MB
Optimum – 30 MB
User permissions:

Administrator privileges required for installation
****************

It took about 35 mins. to scan 260Gb.
You will need broadband connection.








I advice you to un-check the "remove found threats" you can always do a second scan.

Make sure that it is not a false positive. Note the virus name and file name, run your anti-virus program on these files, if both are positive, then have your software clean these files and back-up your data and then do a clean fresh install, this means formatting your hard drive.
If you are not comfortable with reformatting and installing your system, get someone that can help you. If you do not have installation disks, use your system with caution and look for help as soon as possible.

Check the "scan archive" box.
(Please look at my configure settings in the pictures)




-------------------------------------------------------------------
How to test your anti-virus software:

WARNING: PLEASE USE THE TEST AT THE EICAR WEB ADDRESS
AND NOT A DIFFERENT ADDRESS. - tkm

European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

..."The Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware test file
(read the complete text, it contains important information)

Version of 7 September 2006

If you are active in the anti-virus research field, then you will regularly receive requests for virus samples. Some requests are easy to deal with: they come from fellow-researchers whom you know well, and whom you trust. Using strong encryption, you can send them what they have asked for by almost any medium (including across the Internet) without any real risk.

Other requests come from people you have never heard from before. There are relatively few laws (though some countries do have them) preventing the secure exchange of viruses between consenting individuals, though it is clearly irresponsible for you simply to make viruses available to anyone who asks. Your best response to a request from an unknown person is simply to decline politely.

A third set of requests come from exactly the people you might think would be least likely to want viruses "users of anti-virus software".

They want some way of checking that they have deployed their software correctly, or of deliberately generating a "virus incident in order to test their corporate procedures, or of showing others in the organisation what they would see if they were hit by a virus".

Obviously, there is considerable intellectual justification for testing anti-virus software against real viruses. If you are an anti-virus vendor, then you do this (or should do it!) before every release of your product, in order to ensure that it really works. However, you do not (or should not!) perform your tests in a "real" environment. You use (or should use!) a secure, controlled and independent laboratory environment within which your virus collection is maintained.

Using real viruses for testing in the real world is rather like setting fire to the dustbin in your office to see whether the smoke detector is working. Such a test will give meaningful results, but with unappealing, unacceptable risks.

Since it is unacceptable for you to send out real viruses for test or demonstration purposes, you need a file that can safely be passed around and which is obviously non-viral, but which your anti-virus software will react to as if it were a virus.

If your test file is a program, then it should also produce sensible results if it is executed. Also, because you probably want to avoid shipping a pseudo-viral file along with your anti-virus product, your test file should be short and simple, so that your customers can easily create copies of it for themselves.

The good news is that such a test file already exists. A number of anti-virus researchers have already worked together to produce a file that their (and many other) products "detect" as if it were a virus."...

[comes in these formats:
eicar.com, eicar.com.txt, eicar com.zip, eircarcom2.zip - tkm ]

Pavel Constantin - Romania


Ares - Cuba


Sergei Tunin - Russia


Alex Falco - Cuba

Please use the link(s) to read the article(s) in full.
TIP: Right click on the link and open it as a new window or tab.
THANK YOU! - tkm


http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=31600

SpaceRef Interactive

Date Released: Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Source: NASA's Earth Observatory:

Image of the Day: Sarychev Peak Eruption, Kuril Islands

..."A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island."...

Oguz Gurel - Turkey



Riber Hansson - Sweden



Pavel Constantin - Romania



Humberto Lázaro Miranda Ramírez(LAZ) - Cuba



Alex Falco - Cuba



Ares - Cuba