Yesterday, in an effort cut the workload I posted a slightly different version of the post here about OpenDNS, because it was the solution that solved most of the problems people were having, and I was really getting sick of explaining it over and over again in one forum after another. I wrote it in my own words, as I always do, but I used some screenshots from OpenDNS to explain things a bit better. Well, I wondered why the IP address of my host’s abuse department was crawling through every site I host on this server. Shortly after this they forwarded me an email from someone at OpenDNS who I won’t identify here. Turns out he took exception to this and would prefer that I just link everyone straight to their site. Can you imagine if every magazine that reviewed and explained new products just published links to the manufacturers site? Excuse me if I was misled by the following declaration on their site:

Creative Commons. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. We would appreciate a link to our home page http://www.opendns.com/ if you do use the work, though the link is not required. (quoted from opendns.org)

Seems my host’s didn’t need to get involved. I mean, the email address to this site’s admin is published and the comments are left open for two weeks after a post. I really took exception to how he inferred I just took the content. I’m sorry, but I’ve been writing and publishing for almost 15 years now and not once have I ever just taken someone else’s writing.

So to the OpenDNS people, I don’t need these hassles. I don’t need a suspicious abuse department at Godaddy rooting through my server. The (supposedly creative commons) images are gone. They will be replaced later by my own identical screenshots, but for now here is the text version. If anyone needs additional help just email techblog2007@thaivista.net and I’ll help you through it.

If OpenDNS has a problem with this I don’t know what to say. I thought we were on the same side here, trying to help users in trouble and promote OpenDNS. If anyone is reading this let me state very clearly here that I consider any technical help I write here as public domain. Feel free to cut and paste the info to your heart’s content.

Now, on with today’s helpful (I hope) article, with added fluff words to further distinguish it from what OpenDNS’s own instructions. I apologize that my writing is not quite so tight as normal, but I’ve had enough hassles for one day:
Thai internet users these days don’t know what sites are censored, which ones are offline, and which are just unreachable due to poor quality IT skills and even worse quality control at many Thai internet service providers. Often a site is just fine but lousy DNS server configuration at the ISP means that even common sites like Gmail won’t resolve. This leads to frantic “Google is blocked!” posts on every Thai web forum to the point that it gets really annoying.

The way around this is to dump the DNS from the Thai ISP and use OpenDNS. This won’t get around site blocking, but it will help you reach sites outside of Thailand that don’t resolve well due to poor ISP DNS configuration.

Installation is very simple.

Instructions for Windows XP:

First, go to the Start menu, and open your control panel:
Select Network Connections from the list,

Click on your connection, which is most likely named Local Area Connection

Now click on the Properties button

On the next box, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and then click on the Properties button again

Now, before you do anything more, write down the numbers and settings you see in this box, in case you ever want to change back. Then set your settings to the following:

Preferred DNS Server: 208.67.222.222

Alternate DNS Server: 208.67.222.220

These next steps are optional, but will probably help:

Before going anywhere do the following;

Go to the start menu, and click on Run

In the box type command and hit enter

type the following command exactly: ipconfig/flushdns
Reboot your computer (regardless of whether or not you did the optional last step or not) and you should see a noticeable improvement.

Links for setup on other operating systems and windows versions are shown below, including GPRS, and XBox/Playstation Setup.

For Vista
http://www.opendns.com/start/windows_vista.php

For Windows 2000:
http://www.opendns.com/start/windows_2000.php

Macs:
http://www.opendns.com/start/mac.php

Unix/Linux:
http://www.opendns.com/start/unix.php

Mobile/GPRS:
http://www.opendns.com/start/mobile.php

Xbox/Playstation:
http://www.opendns.com/start/gaming.php

Beheaded? Please! Pick up a book, or do a quick Google before making a comment like that. I guess this girl thinks Thais are a bunch of barbarians living in the middle ages.

I’m disappointed because I’ve enjoyed TeXtra, and aside from the silly glam pics, I always liked Del Conte’s straight forward opinions on tech industry news.

I’m sure she knows that the difference between a “chick reads the news” show, and serious journalism is the serious journalist checks their facts before speaking.

If not, that bottom better stay perky. There’s lots of chicks waiting to read the news.

The Textra link is http://textra.podshow.com/ The comment is in the Tuesday May 8 show.

Now if you can’t trust Acer and HP, who do you go to? The answer is Cleanshop, a network of trusted retailers where Microsoft guarantees you will get legitimate software that will authenticate, be registrable, and covered by warrantee.

The list covers shops in several major centres and gives you a way to ensure you don’t get ripped off by a fake copy that will cause you problems down the road.

A list of all Cleanshop outlets can be found at:

http://www.microsoft.com/thailand/cleanshop/

At 9am Bangkok time Digg was flooded with posts from it’s own users, many of them directing their anger at Digg founder Kevin Rose, whom many say has sold out to corporate interests in hopes of making a windfall off Digg.

One user responded with a rather creative reply, reciting the code in Haiku;

oh nine eff nine one
one oh two nine dee seven
four ee three five bee

dee eight four one five
six see five six three five six
eight eight see zero
-Digg user “Virak”

However this turns out, it will be very interesting to see how this plays out at Digg over the next few days. Further banning or censorship may strengthen the revolt, or Digg could cave in again, but this time to the users, the ones who really made the site what it is.

Response posted by Kevin Rose, Digg’s founder:

Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
by Kevin Rose at 9pm, May 1st, 2007 in Digg Website

Today was an insane day. And as the founder of Digg, I just wanted to post my thoughts…

In building and shaping the site I’ve always tried to stay as hands on as possible. We’ve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.). So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code.

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

If we lose, then what the hel_l, at least we died trying.

Digg on,

Kevin

Before you do anything else, make a backup of the windows registry! To do this, Go to Start/Run.Type in regedit. Click OK. This will open the registry editor. With the Registry Editor Open click once on My Computer to highlight it.
Then click File, then select Export. Save the export as Registry Backup. If you do not make a backup and make a mistake in changing the registry which must be done to get rid of the virus, you may have to reformat and reinstall Windows to get back to normal operation. Since you cannot create a system restore point, making this backup of the registry is critical.

The Fix

Double click the My Computer icon on the desktop. Then select Tools/Folder/Options

Click the View Tab and in the list of options:

-Click the radio button for Show Hidden files and folders

-Uncheck the boxes for
-Hide Extensions for known file types
and
Hide Protected Operating System Files
(After removing the virus, you should reverse these actions - instructions for doing this are at the end of the Fix)

Click OK at the bottom of the Folder Options Window. Do not close Windows Explorer yet!
Press Control-Alt-Del to bring up the Task Manager

Click the Processes Tab

Under the column Image Name locate the item wscript.exe. Click on it to highlight it, then right click and select End Process.

Go back to Windows Explorer - do not double click anything. Locate the files autorun.inf and MS32DLL.dll.vbs They should be located at c:\autorun.inf and c:\MS32DLL.dll.vbs (or on the drive that contains the operating system, if not C drive). Left click ONCE on each to highlight it. Then Press Shift+Del. Do this for the root of each drive,

e.g.,

(c:\ is the root…folders appearing after the root are not!)
d:\autorun.inf and d:\MS32DLL.dll.vbs
e:\autorun.inf and e:\MS32DLL.dll.vbs
f:\autorun.inf and f:\MS32DLL.dll.vbs, etc.
(note that if you have a CD/DVD burner program, like Roxio and possibly Nero, autoruns.inf is a legitimate file.
Delete those files from any USB drive, floppy disk, DVD drive and/or Writeable CDs (CD-RW) that you have.
Open the folder c:\Windows and delete the file MS32DLL.dll.vbs by using Shift+Del. You MUST hit shift+delete to completely delete it!

IF YOU DIDN’T BACK UP THE REGISTRY YET, DO IT NOW!!

Go to Start/Run.Type in regedit. Click OK. This will open the registry editor

In the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Current Version\Run. In the right frame, locate MS32DLL. Click it once to highlight it and right click and delete it. If you do not find it, proceed to the next step

While still in the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. In the right frame locate the name Windows Title Hacked by Godzilla Right click the item Windows Title and delete it.

Click Start/Run. Type gpedit.msc then click OK

In the left frame double click User Configuration, then Administrative Templates then System. In the right frame locate Turn off Autoplay. Double left click it and
Click the radio button for Enabled and select All drives . Then click OK. By disabling autoruns, you will be able to run virus and spyware scans on a CD/DVD, Floppy or USB flash drive (or mp3 player) BEFORE a virus or spyware can execute. Now you can close the Group Policy Editor.
Click Start/Run. Type in msconfig, then click OK. When the Configuration editor opens click the Startup tab.
Locate the item ms32dll (in the startup item column) and uncheck the box.
Click OK at the bottom to close the Config Editor, and, when asked select Exit Without Restart.

Double click the My Computer icon on the desktop. Then select Tools/Folder Options
1) Click the View Tab and in the list of options:
2) Click the radio button for “Do Not Show Hidden files and folders”
3) Check the boxes for
“Hide Extensions for known file types”
and
“Hide Protected Operating System Files
4) Click OK at the bottom of the Folder Options Window.

15. Locate the Recycle bin in Windows Explorer an click right on it and select Empty Recycle bin
16. Reboot your computer. The virus should be gone.
17. Right click the My Computer icon on your desktop and select properties. Then click the System Restore tab

Select Turn off System Restore on all drives. Then Click Apply and OK
18. Reboot your computer.
19. Right click the My Computer icon on your desktop and select properties. Then click the System Restore tab.
Un-check the box for “Turn off System Restore on all drives. Then Click Apply and OK
When you are sure that you no longer have the virus, create a system restore point.

For years the pirates of Panthip, a technology superstore in central Bangkok have been making their living burning copies of Windows for sale to both locals, and bargin hunting tourists. Those days will be coming to a close with Vista’s new anti-piracy features that will severely limit the functionality of any installation that doesn’t authenticate. The self-satisfied who brag about their one dollar Windows purchase will now be restricted to older versions of XP as Windows 98, ME, and soon 2000 reach their end of life and no longer recieve vital security updates.

While anti-copy protection advocates complain about false positives, one has to wonder why Microsoft hasn’t done this before. How long were the law abiding going to have to pay a hundred times more but get the same product?

True, Microsoft’s pricing in much of Asia is out of step with with the realities of local economic conditions, where a copy of XP Pro can go for as much as a month’s salary for an office worker, but this should be a boon to the open source community, not the pirates. Ubuntu Linux goes as far as providing free CDs, and free tech support along with a lightweight OS that can be used on less expensive computers, so why bother with Windows at all?

Easy. It sells, and pirates are interested in sales, not promoting alternatives.

The often unreported problem with rampant software piracy is the amount of computers running it who can function fully enough to become spam sending zombies, but not fully enough to get the security updates from the manufacturer needed to secure the machine against malware that hijacks it.

In case there are those of you out there who think that your BETA copy of Vista will be good enough to keep you going, those will expire and stop functioning late next spring, so have a few hundred dollars saved up, because there will be no joy in Singapore, Shanghai, or Bangkok. That i unless you find joy in paying for software that won’t work.

Have you tried browsing Yahoo with Firefox lately? Chances are if you try it regularly Firefox will crash. Tried doing a simple search on Yahoo owned Altavista only to have it redirect you to Yahoo’s cluttered page after the first page of results? These are just a few of the troubles leading some to believe that the venerable giant Yahoo is in it’s death throws.

When Google was powering past Yahoo in the search game, Yahoo bought Altavista, the leading edge search engine since 1996, and killed it.

Venerable Altavista Dies - Search Engine Lowdown, March 2004

With this baffling action Yahoo lost all the advantages of the Altavista brand, and the best chance to take on Google who is now leaving Yahoo behind, buried under the weight of it’s cluttered user interface. Purchases of Flikr, and Alltheweb have proved equally lackluster, failing to rejuvinate what some experts are beginning to call “a dinosaur that just hasn’t died yet”.

Yahoo tried to spark new interest with Yahoo Answers which is the misleading name of the section where the most non expert people in the world gather to guess at the solution to a user’s query which is so time limited as to be useless.

So while Google marches on toward search engine glory, and Myspace and YouTube become social and entertainment meccas, Yahoo tries to do all of the above and drowns in it’s own mediocritry.

How the mighty have fallen.

Those of you still running the bloated Norton or McAfee suites who’s licences are coming due should hold off before renewing those cumbersome programs.

I was skeptical at first, being quite happy with my pro version of Alwil’s AVAST antivirus program, but on the older systems it was being a bit of a drag on resources so I was willing to give nod32 a 30 day trial.

What a difference! It’s like it’s not even there! Lightweight, using a mere 14mb of memory out of an available 768, a non-intrusive email scanner, and no overzealous popup messages telling you what a good job it’s doing.

The user interface was at first a bit geek-ish, which would be somewhat daunting for the novice user, this is the only part of the package that caused us any concern. The deep scans were thorough and took much less time than AVAST or McAfee (McAfee was used as a comparison on a seperate system). One false positive was noted, but in 25 days that was the only one.

As our systems are kept meticulously clean, we cannot judge the heuristics other than tests from third parties. A recent review from CNet stated:

In terms of protecting your PC, we refer readers to two leading independent antivirus testing organizations. In the latest test results from AV-Comparatives.org, NOD32 earned an Advanced + (highest) rating, catching 98 percent of all malware tested. And NOD32 was one of only four products to earn CheckVir.com’s Advanced rating.

Our favourite thing about nod32? It doesn’t try to be everything. It’s designed to do one job, and do it well. That alone is worth the price.

Cost: $39 US
Ease of use: 7/10
Resource use: 9/10
Value for money: 8:10
Effectiveness: 9/10 (Based on third party tests)

Overall score: 8.5/10 (Excellent)

Where to get it: http://www.eset.com/download/index.php

Hint: It’s $10 less from the nod32 homepage than at CNet.

Mozilla realeased their Firefox version 2.0 last week with a little less privacy protection than the previous versions carried. Version 1.5 allowed Firefox users to reject third party cookies, most often set by banner ads from large web advertisers to track users as they move from site to site, aggragating it with search queries to build customer profiles that help in targeting ads. Information collected is so specific that it is possible to determine much personal information, even identities as AOL found out when it realeased search data from customers this past spring.

Group Seeks FTC Investigation Into AOL - Yahoo Business

Was this a mere oversight after massive BETA testing? Open source fanboys loudly proclaim that open source software is the best way to catch bugs, so should we assume this is intentional, or that Mozilla developers, and millions of BETA testers missed this important feature?

Fortunately there is still a way to reject third party cookies if you know how to alter your config file;

In your address bar, type about:config
scroll down till you see network.cookie.cookieBehavior
right-click, choose “modify”
change value in popup box to “1″

Close the tab and your worries are over.

I love Firefox, and it’s sad to see it’s evil side coming out.

Needless too say, the uproar is beginning, and hopefully the Mozilla gang will cave in to it’s users, the people who took a chance on an upstart browser that had been steadily gaining market share through loyal and enthusiastic users spreading the word. Time will tell how much this loyalty has been tested here.