Chatswood course

I forgot to let people know that I’ll also be running my networking basics course at Macquarie Community College Chatswood campus tomorrow (Tuesday 17th February). It will run over 3 consecutive Tuesday nights and give you the fundamentals of networking computers together including information about TCP/IP, routers, firewall and the like.

Information about the course, including enrolment (it is never too late) can be found here:

http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=109C103

I look forward to seeing you there.

Networking course

My Networking Basics course starts this Thursday at Macquarie Community College at Carlingford and runs over the next three weeks. This course will give you a understanding of things such as TCP, IP addressing, switches, wireless, routers, firewalls and more. It is aimed at those who little of no networking experience and want to better understand the technology of getting machines to talk to each other.

You can find more information, including enrolment details here:

http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=109M301

The course will also give you hands on experience with the technology in a computer lab and comes with a comprehensive set of course notes.

MSRT

When you do a Microsoft Update every month (I hope you do!) then you’ll find that one of the items listed is the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT for short) update. Now for months I’ve simply applied the update as a normal part of the process not even caring what it does.

So I did some research and found that Microsoft actually have a site dedicated to telling you what the MRST is all about. You’ll find it at:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

and as the site says

The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom—and helps remove any infection found. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed.

Now, it is updated monthly to include checking for all the newest nasties. I’m not quite sure how it exactly works but it sits in the background monitoring for rogue software. If it detects any you are informed at the next login. It is my understanding that the tool actually does a scan once a month when it is updated. More technical information on the tool can be found at:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=890830

You always gotta wonder what something like this is doing sight unseen in your machine. Is it running? Is it doing anything? Well, as it turns out you can run the tool from the command line. Simply press the Start button, select the Run command from the menu and type MRT and press enter. After a few welcome screens you are able to select from a number of scan options.

Select the scan desired and press Next.

When it’s all done you should hopefully see

Now the tool doesn’t replace anti virus/anti spyware software but it is worth ensuring that you update your system every month via Microsoft Update to ensure you get this handy free utility.

Change is bad

So I’ve been looking at IE8 which comes with Windows 7. Now all this is still in beta and may be subject to change but I can’t comprehend why Microsoft has done the following.

To run Windows Update in IE7 in you went Tools | Windows update like so:

But now in IE8 Windows Update doesn’t live under the Tools menu

It live under the safety menu

I’ll tell you one thing, it is changes like these that really confuse and annoy the average user. It may make sense to the programmers in Redmond but to your average IE user it doesn’t. You would also think that to encourage people to run Windows Update you’d leave the option to do so in the same location, but no.

Sure, it may be a small thing but it makes it just that little bit harder and more frustrating for users. That is going to translate into reduced product acceptance and greater frustration, not to mention the extra support. I can just hear the support calls now – “Are you running IE8 or IE7. Ok, is Windows Update under the Tools menu? No? Oh well that means ….”

It really doesn’t make things easier in my books!

Wanna see something truly amazing?

It’s hard these days to really find a technology that blows my mind. Most of the stuff is normally just an upgrade or evolution of what is already out there. Sure some stuff is gee whiz but there ain’t much HOLY COW anymore.

Well take a look at this and I’m sure you’ll agree this stuff is truly amazing.

Firstly, watch the presentation of the technology at :

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

then visit the following to see it in operation for yourself.

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

I would try and describe what it is but the presentation and the site do a much better job.

It isn’t really Windows unless

I’ve download the beta release of Windows 7 and just installed it under a Hyper-V virtual machine and started to play with it. (I have to say again what a magic thing Hyper-V is).

So what’s the first thing you do when you install a new version of Windows? You check that all the critical applications are still there. So I checked and

yes, thank goodness Solitaire is still there in Windows 7. Phew. Even better it seems like there a few new games on offer as you can see from

So, let me just test these ‘critical’ applications for a bit and let you know how I go with the ‘less’ important stuff in a coming post eh?

I’m sick of patching

You know that you’ve go to do it. You know that it could cause problems with yours and your customers systems but all good tech people know that it is just a part of life. Sigh.

A recent post from Susan Bradley detailing recommendations of how resellers should approach patching just confirms to me why I want someone else to do this. There is just so much time and hassle involved it demonstrates to me that we have built our technology on shaky ground. I acknowledge that patching applies to all software simply because it is developed by fallible human beings but man, you’d think it would be getting better. Even if you aren’t a techie read the post and consider that someone should be doing this for all your systems at least every month. What a waste or time and money but without doubt it needs to be done. Sigh.

The most likely reason is that because technology is so pervasive these days it means it has to support people who have software from pre-Y2K to 2009. That’s a hell of a lot of software and when you start mixing and matching it on different PC’s, that an even greater number of variations you have to account for and patch.

I can see why customers believe that there is conspiracy going on here between developers and IT professionals. Not only do they have to pay for the software they also generally have to pay for someone to update it and debug and issues that arise. To a customer this is painful and seems to happen on a never ending basis.

Again, it confirms to me why cloud computing is so appealing from a customers point of view. Any updates are applied on someone else’s hardware and they don’t have to worry, it is all part of the monthly fee. Sure, many resellers make money out of offering update services but I reckon many customers don’t have this service and many probably don’t want to pay for it anyway. It is always tough to sell a service that simply maintains the status quo. To be more effective maybe you are better off simply selling a repair service and making money when the client finally appreciates they should have done something. I’ll guarantee you’ll have their full attention then!

Honestly, this is all getting far to hard. Honestly, you gotta wonder whether these IT systems are really making any return on investment given the constant maintenance that is involved. Honestly, I’m sick of testing patches on multiple systems before I apply them in production. Honestly, I’m sick of the downtime they cause. Honestly, I want it to be someone else’s problem because it is all just too much work and it is preventing me from doing my work!

I thought I had updated

A few days ago, like many IT people worldwide, I received a distressed call from a friend about the recent Microsoft Internet Explorer issue that they had seen all over the media. What did they need to do? I told them that they had to run a Microsoft Update from their browser. Having never done this (first bad sign) I had to given them an idea of what needed to be done. They were much calmer now knowing what make then safe. After not hearing again from them after a few day I assumed all was fine.

I was actually visiting this same friend today so I thought I’d just take a look at their system to ensure that it had been updated. I was amazed to find that the machine was not up to date at all and in fact was still vulnerable. After starting the update process I quizzed my friend as to why they hadn’t updated. Their reply was “I thought I had”.

So what happened? In theory Microsoft Update is only for Microsoft to inform the user about patches that need to be applied to the system. That is UNLESS they haven’t installed Service Pack 3 for Windows XP! If that hasn’t been installed you’ll see a screen like this:

The top option, and the one most likely to be picked by unsuspecting users like my friend, is to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 and no other updates. So what happened is my friend pushed the top button, not reading the actual instructions on the page, as non-computer people do, and merely installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 on their machine and nothing else.

Was their machine still vulnerable? Yes. Were they likely to run another update? Nope. Chalk up another win for the bad guys. This time in my books it really is an own goal on Microsoft’s part. Sure Windows XP Service Pack 3 is important but it isn’t a critical update. Being the first choice on the screen it is what most users (who aren’t computer people) are going to select in their quest to be “safe” given all the hysteria. Microsoft updates should be for critical updates only and if you are going to put a message about a Service Pack make it the second choice. Microsoft, please remember, most people have no idea about technology.

Perhaps I should have told my friend to keep running Microsoft Update until there were no more updates. Perhaps they should have read the update screen more carefully. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Yet it only takes one maybe for an attacker to compromise a system. Once they get control, your only real option is to reformat and reload, today’s malware is just too sophisticated for any cleaning tool to deal with 100% effectively. To guarantee that your system is clean after an infection the only option is a complete reload. Who wants to do that? No-one but the odds are stacked in an attackers favour. Why? You need to defend your system against EVERY threat in Windows, Office, iTunes, Acrobat and piece of software you have installed on your machine. Not just Windows, the lot. An attacker only needs to exploit ONE SUCCESSFULLY and they can have control. So who’s got the better odds? It certainly isn’t you!

It further illustrates to me the divide between those that develop IT systems and those that use them. The void between the level developers believe users are and where they actually are is immense and getting bigger everyday. Wasn’t technology supposed to get easier? The reality is that is only getting easier for attackers to compromise systems. What does that say for a system we put so much faith in these days. Our common technology is built on very shaky ground, very shaky indeed.