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Sunday, April 11, 2004

Show 30

Happy Easter!

Security expert Steve Gibson joins us today in the 2pm hour.

Matt in Orange is looking for a good Linux for newbies. I recommend Knoppix - it’s the best for trying Linux out because you don’t have to install it. You can run the Linux from a bootable CD. Then when you know you want to install a copy I recommend SuSE. It’s definitely the nicest Linux out right now.

John in Glendale is looking for a screen saver to play back movie clips on his PC. First task is to get the movie clips on the computer. If you’re ripping DVDs you’ll need a program that can decrypt the DVD (commercial DVDs are copy protected using CSS). Kalel’s DVD Rip Guides will tell you what you need to know. You’ll probably want to convert the video to AVI.

www.Tmpgenc.net
www.snapfiles.com

Tom in Nashville wanted recommendations on setting up a wired network. Linksys is probably the best because it’s the most widely used. I also like Netgear, D-Link, SMC - all good companies with good products. Do be careful about no-name routers or NICs. Stick with a well known name even if it’s a little more expensive.

Amy in Ohio has a Dell Axim X5 with 32 megs of RAM, but she keeps running out of RAM.

Sean in Los Angeles says his monitor no longer wakes from sleep. I suspect a cable problem.

Tiffany in Nashville has two trojan horses that just keep coming back. She’s used Norton Anti-Virus to remove Downloader and Backdoor. I recommend getting a second opinion from another anti-virus program. Try the free AVG antivirus from http://grisoft.com grisoft.com or Trend Micro’s free online virus checker. I also recommend checking Symantec’s Anti-Virus Research Center, SARC, for manual removal instructions.

Vern in Temecula wants a hard drive based video camera. There are professional cameras with hard drive backs, but I don’t know of any consumer camcorders with built-in hard drives. On the other hand, many cameras will record direct to a hard drive via the firewire cable. You could hook-up a small portable hard drive (iPod perhaps?) and record directly to that.

Nesrin in La Miranda says her Yahoo Messenger password no longer works. It’s pretty easy for someone to change your password without your knowledge. Fortunately, Yahoo always sends you an email with the new, randomly generated, password. Check your email to see if that’s the problem.

Steve in Placentia is considering switching to Macintosh. He wants to know if it’s going to be hard to learn.

Tim in Santa Fe Springs needs to reset his laptop BIOS password. Try this site for some suggestions.

Steve Gibson of Spinrite fame joins me to talk about security and spyware. Test your security with his free ShieldsUP program and download other useful free tools from his site GRC.com.

Service Pack 2 for Windows XP is a MUST have. Download it the minute it’s available. (If you’re an experienced user you may even want to install RC-1 now.)

New features:

• Much improved firewall - eliminates the need for a third-party firewall. Now on by default.
• File sharing is now network safe.
• Instant block all button.
• Major improvements in web browser security
• Internet Explorer blocks pop-ups
• MIME sniffing
• No more web bugs in HTML email
• Default viewer is rich edit, not HTML