Dennis Thompson
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Homepage: http://www.atomicpages.net
Posts by Dennis Thompson
Think you have a virus?
Jun 14th
Is your computer running awfully slow and is sluggish? Does a mysterious program keep popping up on your desktop every 10 seconds? Do you get a lot of popups while browsing the web, random error messages, or the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)?
If so, then I’ve got some bad news for you. There is a probable chance that your system is infected. In order to understand the infection, we need to be able to identify the characteristics of infections. There are many types of infections and they all have different characteristics.
- Malware
- Trojan
- Virus
- Grayware
- Spyware
- Worm
Malware
Malware is a broad term meaning malicious software including, but not limited to, trojans, worms, viruses, logic bombs, and spyware.
Malware isn’t simply poorly coded software that causes memory leaks and other issues with Operating Systems; this software is created solely with the intent of collecting information, annoying the user, and causing mild to severe harm to a user’s Operating System and sometimes hardware.
Since we’ve gone over the broad umbrella of Malware, let us delve into the specifics.
Spyware
Spyware does exactly as its name implies. Spyware is used to collect bits of information about a user when the computer is being used. This is done without the users knowledge and is done in the background without the users knowledge.
Spyware is known the change computer settings, install programs, changing internet settings, change internet homepages, slow connection speeds, and other types of things that can invade a users privacy.
Spyware can lead to identity theft, credit card fraud, stealing of banking information, and password that gain access into encrypted content. A popular spyware program is called a keylogger which literally logs every keystroke to a remote location via browser exploitation and the internet.
Yet another form of spyware is called scareware which is design specifically to get a user to buy a product. This type of spyware will often have messages claiming a users computer to be infected and in order to remove said infections a full version will need to be purchased. This can lead to credit card fraud since they usually require payment by credit card.
Traits
Spyware has specific traits to it, however. This will allow you to identify a spyware infected computer.
- Slow system performance
- Significant decrease in connection speed
- Random programs being installed without your knowledge or consent
- Background has changed and will not change back
- Popups claiming that your web browser is out of date or system is infected
- Not able to uninstall programs
- Desktop has changed and cannot be changed back
- Mouse pointer moves itself
- Mouse pointer disappears
- Cannot access run or task manager
- Windows start bar/button goes missing
- Computer shuts down and starts up by itself
- Documents and files are printed by themselves
- Slow internet connection
- Dramatic loss of hard drive space
- Denial of Service attacks
- Web Server being brought down
- Annoying popups on your desktop
- Cannot access task manager
- Cannot access Run
- Cannot System Restore
- Cannot visit certain websites like mcafee.com or kaspersky.com
- Boot Sector Virus
- Master Boot Record (MBR) Virus
- File Infecter Virus
- Macro Viruses
- Slows system performance
- Dramatically slows web browser
- Sluggish internet connection
- Random error messages
- Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)
- Not able to access run
- Not able to access task manager
- Processes running with random characters and/or numbers
- No access to System Restore
- Blocked access to certain or all applications
- Unable to access anti-virus websites e.g. mcafee.com or kaspersky.com
These are some symptoms of Spyware; How to prevent spyware will be covered later on in the article.
Trojan Horse
Named after the Trojan Horse in which Greek solders housed themselves in for a surprise attack in Troy. This Trojan Horse was intended to deceive the Troy solders, making them think it was a gift of peace rather than a surprise attack.
A computer infection called a Trojan or Trojan Horse is no different. These trojans have hidden agendas and hidden functionality.
A trojans sole purpose is to acquire information about a users, initiate distributed denial of service attacks on web server, data theft, deleting files, installing unsolicited programs, etc.
Sometimes trojans can be relatively harmless and other times they can infect the master boot record (mbr) or partition tables which will cause a critical failure of a users operating system. This will crash the computer and essentially render the computer unusable unless the OS is reinstalled.
Especially dangerous Trojans will allow a hacker to physically hijack a users computer. Depending on the complexity and severity of the trojan, the hacker can disable the keyboard, mouse, monitor, change the desktop background, access the administrator command prompt, access the registry, and delete critical OS files.
Traits
The traits of a torjan are similar to spyware since a trojan is basically a form of spyware. They do, however, differ from spyware.
Worms
Worms are unlike a Torjan Horse or Spyware. Worms are self-replicating programs that uses a network to send copies of itself to other computers. Worms are specifically target computers with unencrypted internet access, weak network passwords, weak computer passwords, and computers with out-dated antivirus software.
Perhaps one of the worst worms ever in the history of technology is the ILOVEYOU worm which arrived in email boxed in early May of 2004. This internet worm contained the text, “ILOVEYOU” as the subject line and the content of the email. There was also an attachment called “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs”. This visual basic extension was hidden from unsuspecting users to see and tricked users into thinking it was a mere text file with more lovely words. However wonderful as it was, upon opening the .txt file the worm automatically sent a copy of the email to everyone in the users windows address book with the users email address. The worm also made malicious changes to the Windows Operating System and replicated itself throughout the registry. The worm estimated $5.5 billion damage and infected 50 million systems.
Bad worms can infect a computer and render it basically unusable. Worms can literally hijack a users computer and use the system as a zombie computer where it send copies of the worms to anyone and everyone.
Traits
Worms are somewhat tricky to detect since they depend heavily on a network connection to work. The majority of the worms out there don’t contain payloads or additional code to seriously harm a system. They’re mainly implemented to see how many systems can be infected, to bring down a website, or to cause a nuisance.
Grayware
Grayware is a different form of malware and is solely intended to make a user bang their head against their monitor. They also harm a system but it’s done in a highly obnoxious fashion. Popups, banner ads on websites, remote access tools, dialers, and irksome jokes are embedded in grayware.
Grayware can cause serious security holes in a system and it can also introduce more severe infections like spyware, viruses, and logic bombs.
Traits
Virus
Viruses are in their own category at times. Some consider a virus to not be a form of malware and some do.
A virus will attach itself to a program of file and will begin to copy itself. These file transfers will cause the virus to spread as it is passed through one computer to the next. Viruses might change data, corrupt data, or degrade the performance of a users system by taking up memory and disk space.
Viruses have for main categories, they are the following:
Boot Sector Virus
A boot sector virus infects the boot records on a hard drives and also floppy disks. Once the users boots the computer the virus will be saved in the boot record and infect other types of media as data is written to them.
MBR Virus
MBR viruses infect the Master Boot Record of a hard disk which is the first of a hard drive. The MBR contains the partition table, bootstrapping files to load the OS after the POST has run, and a unique digital signature to identify the disk media.
The virus will fester on the mbr upon successful boot and will infect other files and may even corrupt a users partition table and critical system files that load the OS.
File Infecter Virus
A file infecter virus will infect files that contain .exe and .com files. Sometimes these viruses will remain in the memory and infect other files and applications. This type of virus will only infect files as they are executed.
Macro Virus
Macro viruses will infect certain data files and most notably, Microsoft Office Files such as, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Power Point presentations, and Access databases.
A macro virus may also share the traits of a worm and spread themselves across a network.
Traits
Real Hosting
Jun 11th
Real hosting is something much more than what meets the eye. It is more than a place to merely store files and have a space on the Internet. It’s more than just unlimited this and unlimited that; it involves real space, real deals, real support, and real guarantees.
What you REALLY pay for
Ever heard of the Myth of Unlimited Hosting? Aside from being technically impossible, it is highly unlikely that a web hosting company will charge you $4.95 a month if you agree to stay for 60 months. This includes unlimited disk space, a free domain name, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited databases, unlimited FTP accounts, unlimited emails, and unlimited everything else.
If you happen to break the 60 month agreement you are slapped with a termination fee and other hidden fees. This can quickly become a major hassle, especially when you receive poor support and service when you just want out of a bad hosting situation.
Often, in these situations, the hosting companies will begin to nag at you when too much space is taken up on a shared server, you’re taking up too much CPU, or taking up too much RAM on the server. This renders the promise of unlimited features as invalid and not a real guarantee and not real, honest hosting.
These types of hosting companies will go into your account and begin changing things if you have too many files on the server, if the files are taking up too much space, or too many “unrelated files”. They will disable the website and then it becomes a hassle to get your website back online. While they’re breaking promises, you’re losing traffic, clients, and/or money. Whether it is a business website or a personal blog, it is embarrassing when you have to explain to clients and friends why your website is down in the first place.
While you’re banging your head against a wall wondering why your website was suspended, they will be helping other people and not replying to your support tickets, emails, or phone calls. Some hosts will treat you like a second-class citizen if your account is suspended.
What you get with real hosting from AtomicPages
AtomicPages Real Hosting is different; we do not make promises we cannot keep. We will never claim to have unlimited features and go back on our word later on. The amount of features you pay for is the amount of features you will actually receive and nothing less; no questions asked.
This is what defines real hosting from impostors. We are honest, backup our guarantees, and have real morals. You will never hear that we are suspending your account due to too much space, taking up too many resources on the server, or any other made-up excuse. We will not impose upon your website unless it is breaking the law. AtomicPages real hosting will never leave you in the dark about your website.
Helping people with websites and delivering good quality hosting while keeping a promise is not all smoke and mirrors. There is no mystery to keeping a promise.
All you ever wanted to know about DOS: Copy
Jun 9th
In this tutorial, we’re going to talk about more essential commands to know in DOS. We’re going to get a little more loose with the syntax in this tutorial so knowledge of the bare essentials is key in fully understanding this new loose syntax.
Revised Syntax
In previous tutorials, we’ve typed the path to files long hand. For example:
1 | C:\Users\Dennis> cd C:\users\dennis\documents\downloads |
Note: For the differences between the three filing systems, please click here.
This is meant to under stand the syntax of the path and used to learn how the files are structured in XP, Vista, and Windows 7. The short hand version assumes that knowledge of the “file tree” is known and understood easily. The short-hand notation saves time and makes navigating through DOS more efficient. Short-hand notation is like the following:
1 2 3 | C:\Users\Dennis> cd music vs. C:\Users\Dennis> cd C:\users\dennis\music |
Both of these examples will take us to the same destination. The only difference is that the latter example provides the entire path to the destination (which is somewhat redundant) and the first example already assumes we’re talking about a Music directory that exists in the path C:\users\dennis.
Copy
Being graced with this “revised syntax” we can now commence and learn more commands in DOS! Our first command is an extremely useful command: copy. The most widely used command once upon a time but has been eclipsed by xcopy which has been succeeded by robocopy (Vista and 7 only).
The copy command is slightly more complex then any other command that we’ve gone over so far. There are more switches that can be used to dictate how the command executes and we need to write two paths. The syntax is as follows:
1 2 3 4 | C:\> Copy [switches] source [switches] [drive]\[path] destination [switches] [drive]\[path] C:\> Copy *.* d: C:\Users\Dennis\test copy stuff.txt C:\users\dennis\desktop |
The first command will copy all files in the current directory to the D: drive. This is an unsophisticated way of creating backups of files and folders.
The second example is copying the file from the directory C:\users\dennis\test to C:\users\dennis\desktop.
Useful Switches
The copy command comes with useful switches that all us to define what type of file we are copying and what actions we want to take once the file is copied.
| Switches | Description |
|---|---|
| Source Switches | There are two separate switches for source and destination |
| /A | Indicates that the file is an ASCII Text File |
| /B | Indicated that the file is a Binary File |
| Destination | Destination Switches |
| /V | Verifies that the copy was successful and done correctly. |
| /N | Uses a short filename, if available, when copying a non-8-dot 3 name. |
| /Y | Suppresses prompting to confirm that you want to overwrite an existing destination file. |
| /-Y | Causes prompting to confirm that you want to overwrite an existing destination file. The prefix (-) means “not” in most cases. |
Cool Copy Tricks
There are two cool tricks that stand out with the copy command. The first:
1 2 3 | C:\> copy con stuff.txt This is some text^Z 1 file(s) copied. |
The copy command when combined with con allows us to create a text file that we want to copy to the directory. the ^Z is done by pressing control+z, this saves and exits. Though, an easier way is to use the edit command.
The second trick is equally as cool and makes sense if you know xcopy or robocopy (Vista and 7 only). This trick will actually allow us to combine the contents of two files together. For example:
1 | C:\users\dennis\test> copy stuff.txt+more-stuff.txt |
This will copy the contents of more-stuff.txt and combine it with stuff.txt We can verify that the copy was successful by using the type command to view the contents of the .txt file.
XP versus Vista and 7
Jun 7th
The title is somewhat misleading. We’re not going to go over the ins and outs of XP, Vista, and 7, we’re not going to be comparing their kernels, hardware, structure of the OS, etc… This is simply on the drastic differences between the XP file system and the Vista/7 file system. Any user that switches from one OS to the other will notice that their files are stored differently.
XP
XP was somewhat revolutionary back in the day because it was a stable OS based on Windows NT, it was unlike any other Windows OS at the time, the themes were great, the graphics were state of the art, and the list goes on and on.
One advantage XP had over previous Windows Operating Systems was the file structure, how data was stored in the folders on the hard drive. This new file structure was an easy way to navigate through the hard drive to quickly find exactly the file you need. The file tree was easy to remember and it looked like the following:
This diagram does require some explanation, however. Admin, All Users, and Username (this is your account) do not all share “My Documents”. They are actually three difference types that they share. Think of this as it’s own user so no files are shared with the others.
Admin
|
All Users (Shared Documents and Programs)
|
Your Username
|
Each user has their own documents, favorites, etc… All Users will grab anything that is shared including programs, documents, startup programs such as anti-virus, and shared desktop items like shortcuts, etc.
Vista and Windows 7
Vista and Windows 7 have a different file structure than XP and is even easier to find files and folders in my opinion. One big advantage is the cut of “documents and settings” and it being replaced by “users“. Here is the general vista and 7 file structures:
Note: Vista does not contain the prefix “my” in front of any folders. They are simply “Documents“, “Pictures“, “Music“, etc.
From this chart, we can see that the path to files is significantly neater than XP. There are fewer directories to deal with, less typing involved in the command prompt environment, key directories like music and pictures are not embedded in my documents folder anymore, and many more advantages.
As mentioned for the XP file structure above, Your Account and Public will not contain the same files and same directory names. They are two different users; however, Vista and Windows 7 illustrate this concept much more clearly then XP does.
All you ever wanted to know about DOS: Copying, Renaming, Type, and Edit
Jun 4th
Today we’re going to talk about Copying, Renaming, Creating Text Files, and displaying what is inside files when using DOS. These tutorials assume that a general knowledge of DOS is already known. The first tutorial and second tutorial are excellent resources when learning DOS.
Diskcopy
Diskcopy is a command that allows us to copy the contents from one floppy disk to another. This can be useful to create backups of the contents on a floppy disk. This can be useful in easily backing up content on a floppy that contains old finical records and other important documents from the golden days of 3.5″ floppy disks.
1 | C:\> diskcopy a: |
This would make a copy of the disk that is currently in the a: (default floppy) drive. You should not use diskcopy for anything other than floppy drives, however.
Rename or Ren
Rename or Ren allows us to rename files and folders. Let us start by navigating to our directory that we want to test our files in. The default directory for vista and XP will suffice for this example.
1 2 3 4 5 | Vista/7 C:\Users\Dennis>mkdir test XP C:\Documents and Settings\Dennis>mkdir test |
The mkdir command creates a new directory in the current directory that we’re in so no need to put the entire path to the new directory.
The syntax for the ren/rename is a little strange and nothing like any command previously mention before in this series. Be sure the path points to the parent directory (one level above the test directory), otherwise an error will occur. The syntax is the following:
1 2 3 4 | ren [drive]\[path]\[current name] [new name] Example: ren C:\users\dennis\test test2 |
To verify the name change actually occurred, use the dir command to view the contents of the directory.
Edit
The edit command is a very basic text editor in DOS. This allows us to type basic .txt files without word wrap, without spell checker, without any configuration whatsoever.
There are two flavors of the edit command. There is the default blue background\white text option and then we can add a switch that makes the window and text the same as the default DOS window (black background and a light-gray text).
 |
 |
In order to activate the edit window, all we need to do is simply type “edit”.
1 | C:\users\dennis\test> edit |
Type a few lines of text and then press file and save as.
 |
 |
Once the file is saved (be sure to include the file extension “.txt”), double check to make sure the file was successfully created by using the dir command.
Type
The type command allows us to view any files created using the edit command regardless of file extension. Files encoded with Microsoft Office such as .doc or .docx cannot be viewed using the type command. The syntax of the type command is as follows:
1 2 | [Drive:]\[path]\type [filename.file extension] C:\users\dennis\test>type dosstuff.txt |
Notice that we are able to view any file extension as long as it was encoded using the edit command in DOS. If we were to view a file encoded in Microsoft Office 2007 it would look like the following:
Notice the arbitrary characters that occur when we try to view documents encoded using MS Word. This is because the encoding format is something that DOS cannot read.
