OT: anti-malware progs ineffective

John,

I'm glad it worked for you.

One thing to note is that on my old machine it took all three programs to rid me of it. AVG got two "main?" .exe files while it took the other two anti-spyware progs to clean up the rest.

Before I downloaded the very latest AVG definitions it'd miss coolWWW and the anti-spyware looked like they'd gotten everything... but it'd always promptly return.

Each systems a little different though.

Regards,

Andrew.

I've thought about this [trying 'nix again]. I tried a version of RedHat back in '01 (nifty Matrix-style screensaver, heh.) I didn't use WiNE or any other translator. The problem arises in the number of PC-only apps I use daily for which there is no 'nix port for. Without half these windows programs I'm sunk. It sucks being "locked in" to Microsoft - guess they'd say that's a good buisness plan though. Could one honestly expect an app like

I was very suprised to run across ePSXe - a PlayStation1 Emulator for the PC. Lo and behold, run the emulator, put in your playstation disc, and it runs! I guess this shouldn't be so amazing, but considering the archetecture is completely different...

-- "Abhorred is the day when it's all figured out." MCJ 200402

Burn the latest version of Zone Alarm on CD and install it before even plugging in the net cable. You can also proxy through a properly protected box. Forget about MS Internet sharing, use FreeProxy or some such, much better control over who does what. Use nonroutable IPs for the internal network.

- YD.

Not trying to defend M$ or anything, but if you look at the history of Windows it was never designed with networking in mind. When Novell and Eagle started wiring businesses M$ saw an opportunity and hopped on to it with a vengeance, coming out with Microsoft Network. This was for small local networks, a rather benign environment where security wasn't supposed to be an issue.

BG pooh-poohed the whole concept of the Internet until WWW came along, when he saw the light simply tacked a crappy TCP/IP stack onto it.

Since then Windows security and WAN handling has been a hotch-potch mess impossible to fix without breaking backwards compatibility and compromising future developments. In short, they (and we) are stuck with an overgrown mess that really should be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.

- YD.

..........

I was with you right upto where I snipped. QNX 4.25 was a great microkernel, and was very usable. I "think" QNX 6 is a micro kernel, is was in it's early stages. Pat

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"Administrator", WTFsT?. I think that must be a later version of windows. Every time I hear that word I remember a particularly stupid, overpaid chap, with a goatee beard, cheap suit, gold cuff-links, unwashed shiny tie and a real bad, snotty attitude. TBH I'm only on win98 cos it's got USB facility. I'd probably even be happier with GEM. One day I'll move to the Linux thing. I'm clear of crap now and have Spy-Sweeper running in the background but still gave Garth's Decombobulator a go :-) regards john

Some folks think wine is an emulator--it's not. WINE is a recursive acronym which stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator.

wine is a reverse-engineered set of Windows Application Programming Interfaces that will run under Linux. It is meant to be a REPLACEMENT for the Windoze APIs.

ROFL!

True, the name of the game is preventing unauthorized people getting root access. Easier said than done, sometimes.

OTOH, there's a large amount of peer review. Closed-source can by its nature not get the same scrutiny.

This has happened, and will continue to happen. However the likelihood of its being spotted is much greater, and, once spotted, patches appear in days, sometimes hours.

Hell, Microsoft are still releasing fixes for such basic things as buffer overruns on Win2K. We're now in 2K5

This leads to allowing users root

I agree about microkernels. Sadly, as you said yourself, nobody has yet made a usable system out of one.

I'll concede that some server apps need to be suid root. Good ones won't even install for userid 0.

Not per se.

You might be

Believe me, I'm not.

That's down to poor quality administration.

Most major ISPs are actvely probing their address space for open relays, now. Should have happened five years ago.

At least that approach will only screw up one account. It won't take the system down.

I hope that day never comes. I like being in a minority. However, if it ever does, support will be much the same as it is now with Windows. The big box-shifters provide support to their customers. OEMs provide support. Linux distros provide support. How many end users, other than large corporates get support direct from Microsoft?

Linus Torvalds does provide (expensive) support, mainly to distros. I doubt there are many teenage undergrads on his team. Postgrads in their twenties, perhaps. Linux is a business, now.

I don't think we disagree about that.

Get the free stuff from Microsoft, it's seems to be OK, I have been using and checking the results against other programs and so far 100%