Antivirus XP 2008 and avxp2008.com

July 23, 2008

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Removing Antivirus 2009

I’ve been monitoring my traffic a fair amount over the past few weeks since I first published XP Antivirus 2008 and Antivirus 2009 are evil!. It looks like things were starting to taper off a little but has jumped up this week and in checking my Google Analytics Traffic Sources, I see that I am getting a bunch of hits from Google for the term ‘avxp2008′. Surprisingly, there were only 5 hits for that term, this site being one of them due to the mention in a comment from krisi on July 12th.

One of the search results had a vague mention of a web address of avxp2008.com. So I fired up Firefox and took a visit. While not quite as slick as the other site (see Antivirus 2009 and microsoft.browserprotectioncenter.com), they are definitely doing everything they can to try to lull you into their confidence and click on one of their download links. With most sites, you expect some kind of intermediate page once you click a download link where they will either provide some additional details or instructions or gather some information from you. Not here. They try right off the bat to get you to download a .exe file (AntivirusXP2008Installer.exe) in the hopes that you will click the Run button and install it.

If you are already infected, you should take a look at Removing Antivirus 2009 - Round 3 for how I was able to remove it from my Dad’s computer. In the next day or so I hope to post a quick article on how to avoid getting infected in the first place.

If anyone has any other advice or suggestions, please leave a comment for others to benefit from.

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Antivirus 2009 and browserprotectioncenter.com

July 8, 2008

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Removing Antivirus 2009

If you have been infected with the Antivirus 2009 spyware/malware, I’m sure that you have noticed that all of the links point to microsoft.browserprotectioncenter.com. Hopefully you haven’t visited the site and/or purchased their spamware/spyware/malware solution. So for the curious out there, here are some screen shots of what you would find on their site.

A couple of things to note:

  • All of the thumbnail/small images below are linked to the original images on my Flickr account. They DO NOT link to the original page. So you can click the images to view the full-size image on Flickr without fear.
  • They obviously spent a fair amount of money on making a site that is easy on the eyes and very inviting. I’ve seen plenty of legitimate businesses with hideous sites.
  • If you go to microsoft.browserprotectioncenter.com with Firefox, you get redirected to the Internet Explorer 7 download page. I guess they really want you to run IE so that they can take advantage of the less secure browser.
  • While I feel that I am providing a bit of a public service by publishing all of this information, the sad fact is that they could very easily set this whole scam up again at a different site/address/URL.

Here is what lives at browserprotectioncenter.com:

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C# using Directive

July 7, 2008

Scott Hanselman has a new post that caught my eye: Back to Basics - Do namespace using directives affect Assembly Loading? In that post he points to an interesting StyleCop rule that caused him to do a double-take: SA1200: Using Directives Must Be Placed Within Namespace.

According to the StyleCop post, there are three things to consider when deciding the placement of the using directive:

There are subtle differences between placing using directive within a namespace element, rather than outside of the namespace, including:

1. Placing using-alias directives within a namespace eliminates compiler confusion between conflicting types.

2. Placement of using directives can affect how and when the .Net Framework will load referenced assemblies.

3. When multiple namespaces are defined within a single file, placing using directives within the namespace elements scopes references and aliases.

According to Scott:

However, the second rule in the post said:

"However, placing the using statements [Ed. Note: They mean "directives"] within a namespace element allows the framework to lazy load the referenced assemblies at runtime. In some cases, if the referencing code is not actually executed, the framework can avoid having to load one or more of the referenced assemblies completely. This follows general best practice rule about lazy loading for performance."

This stopped me in my tracks. This rocks the very bedrock that my knowledge of the CLR stands on. I’m like, NO WAY, and then I oscillated back and forth between denial and acceptance. Then, I settled on denial. I don’t buy it. A using directive is for aliasing and is a kind of syntactic sugar. Ultimately the IL is the same. Assembly loading won’t be affected as the assembly manifest doesn’t change.

I have always put my using directive outside the namespace declarations. That was the way everyone did and to me it looked better. Every now and then I would see a code sample that placed the using directive inside the namespace declaration and it always made me wonder why you would do that.

Going to the MSDN Library, we find the following for the using Directive:

The using directive has two uses:

  • Create an alias for a namespace (a using alias).
  • Permit the use of types in a namespace, such that, you do not have to qualify the use of a type in that namespace (a using directive).

Granted, this page appears to only concern itself with how the directive is used, but you would think that if there were any possibility that position would affect the loading of classes that it would be called out in the Remarks section.

Scott was right to question the statement. He created quick test that seems to bear out the fact that position of the using directive does not affect the loading characteristics of the code. In addition, several people in the comments performed similar tests, including checking the generated IL code and came up with the same conclusion. He is waiting for some official feedback from someone on the compiler team.

So now I know that the only real reason to put the directive inside the namespace is to avoid conflicts, which I haven’t had so far.

Side note: Did you know that there is a difference between the using Directive and the using Statement? I never really paid attention or made the association that they were the same word but differentiated by context.

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What is the difference between a computer virus and spyware?

July 6, 2008

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Removing Antivirus 2009

During this whole ordeal with my Dad’s Antivirus 2009 issues, a question that came up a couple of times that I didn’t have an answer to was "How come I need an anti-virus application and an anti-spyware application?" I’m vaguely aware of the history of each and how they evolved separately but I though that a quick refresher on each was in order.

Here are some definitions culled from Wikipedia:

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Removing Antivirus 2009 - Round 3

July 5, 2008

This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Removing Antivirus 2009

Despite my best efforts in XP Antivirus 2008 and Antivirus 2009 are evil! and XP Antivirus 2008 and Antivirus 2009 - Round 2 it appears that there might still be some residual infection on my Dad’s computer:

Last evening preparatory to shut down, that blue screen we saw last week-end popped up with the standard msg about having to shut down.  But this time, instead of going through the motion of shutting down and restarting, the system froze.  Finally pulled the plug and brought the system up in the admin account and started SpyBot.  It produced zero hits.

My latest round of advice is to try the following:

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SIGG Can’t Keep Up With Water Bottle Demand

July 5, 2008

Over the past year or so, due to the publicity over bottled water, I’ve gradually become aware of movement toward personal water bottles that are designed to last longer, not contain harmful chemicals, not leak, etc. I like the idea of having personal water bottle for my kids. It is a great way to get them away from bottled water, soft drinks and juice boxes. So during the round of May birthdays at our house, after some research, I decided to give SIGG water bottles as gifts.

I found some good designs at a couple of local retailers but was having some trouble finding the specific design my son wanted. I had been to the SIGG online store in May and went back there to see if I could find the specific design there. I ran into this at the MySIGG online catalog:

Due to the incredible demand for SIGG bottles, we are forced to close down the MySIGG shop. We are also unable to supply any other Internet business for Sigg Brand. Our Swiss factory is working around the clock to produce and ship more bottles to us, but the demand has currently and for the near future - exceeded the supply.

That is pretty crazy. They have been silently making their water bottles for a 100 years and now they can’t keep up with demand. I bet they are pretty excited to finally see the shift toward their product.

In the meantime, here are some retailers they recommended you check out:

In addition to SIGG, you may want to check out Klean Kanteen. They are marketing a stainless steel personal water bottle (as opposed to SIGG’s aluminum version).

Anyone have a stories to share regarding their experiences with either brand? I personally like the new SIGGs that I’ve gotten the kids. First and foremost, they don’t leak. Second, since it is their own personal bottle, they like keeping up with it and actually like drinking out of it (more water, less juice!).

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XP Antivirus 2008 and Antivirus 2009 - Round 2

June 29, 2008

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Removing Antivirus 2009

OK, so it was a bit premature to declare victory over the XP Antivirus 2008 / Antivirus 2009 issues that my dad was facing. Here is the email I got this morning:

I ran the full scan over night which produced one more critical item and over a hundred cookies which were removed.  At first it seemed like there were no problems.  I switched to the non-admin account and started getting the same screens we had viewed last night.  Still in the this partition, I cranked up the full scan and after running a while the interference got worse by displaying two or three new screens predicting even more dire consequences. And, periodically going into what appears to be a  rebooting of the system following which the scan proceeded as normal.

I did a little more research using some of the keywords from last night’s screen shots and ran across this xp antivirus 2008 post in the Windows Live OneCare Anti-Virus forum. Looks like people started running across variations of the virus/spyware back in February. Since then there have been over 42,000 views and over 80 replies with varying degrees of success. Most people referred to a post by ’shecut’ on page 2 as having been successful. I decided that was what we were going to try.

We got on the phone and connected via Copilot again. Again, it was immediately apparent that there was something going on with his computer. Check out these screen shots:

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XP Antivirus 2008 and Antivirus 2009 are evil!

June 29, 2008

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Removing Antivirus 2009

Wow! I just spent two hours on the phone and CoPilot with my dad to get one of his computers cleaned up. I’ve dealt with a couple of spyware infections in the past, but nothing as insidious as this. Fortunately my dad was suspicious enough to reach out for assistance before he really got took. Here is the re-cap:

I got this email from my dad earlier today:

Matt my desktop computer has been infected with Antivirus 2009.  Do you have a recommendation for software to remove it?  Spyware Hunter has been recommended but, at this point, I don’t trust anything.  Dad

I’m glad that he was suspicious. After a little Googling on the key words from his message, I was suspicious. Here was my reply:

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SpeedStream 5260 ADSL Ethernet Modem

June 28, 2008

Knock on wood. I probably shouldn’t be writing about this but I will anyway.

Since the family is out of town, I’m taking the opportunity to clean up my little corner of the computer/guest room and get rid of a few things. I found a box from the SBC DSL Fulfillment Center. Inside was the original box that my SpeedStream 5260 ADSL Ethernet Modem came in.

I agree. Who cares? The only reason I’m posting about it is because this thing is pretty old in terms of Internet years. The packing slip that came with the box is dated May 8th, 2000. Do the math. The modem is over eights years old now. I’ve been through a bunch of computers, monitors, routers, etc. in the past eight years. Good to see something last.

Is there an equivalent calculation for internet-to-human years like there is for dog-to-human years?

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Performing code reviews via internal forums

June 9, 2008

I am in the process of standing up an installation of Community Server (CS) Express at my day job. Despite all of the other things that come with an installation of CS, I am really just looking at it for the forum functionality. If I had my way, we’d be installing phpBB or vBulletin since they are single-purposed, free, no limitations in the free version, more polished/tighter UI and they don’t have all of the bloat of CS. However, we are a Microsoft shop and my installation of MediaWiki three years ago was pain enough to convince me to not try another WAMP/WIMP stack there. Not that it was difficult, but nobody wants to touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Regardless, despite my preference for the other forums, I don’t mind working with CS at all. The folks at Telligent have put a lot of effort into making Community Server a first-class, .Net-based, online community platform. The installation is really smooth, configuration is a breeze, it is very flexible and has a ton of features. In addition, I have worked with CS off and on since it used to be .Text and the original ASP.Net forums so I am fairly familiar with how it works.

Anyway, I want an internal forum at my day job to:

  • Help document and build up a knowledge base of all the little complexities/oddities/nuances/features required to support all of our applications. While we generally do a pretty good job at documentation, a fair amount gets lost in all of our enterprises content management options (Documentum, SharePoint, wiki, network file locations, emails, hallway conversations, etc.)
  • Help publicize some of our coding standards through public peer reviews. While we have an internal copy of Design Guidelines for Developing Class Libraries (aka Framework Design Guidelines) on our wiki that we customize per our needs, with the constant flux of developers, we still have a lot of crappy code being generated and put into production.

The first bullet is the typical reason for implementing an internal community or forum. But why would I want to conduct peer reviews via an online forum and not in a meeting or at least provide comments directly in source code?

  • Meetings are nice, but they are a PITA to schedule (room, resources, people, etc.) and don’t provide any value to the people who weren’t in attendance (sick, vacation, conflicts, future employees, etc.). In addition, it can provide a little bit of anonymity for the reviewee by just posting a method or class without revealing the source location or developer that wrote it. They would know who they are, but they don’t necessarily need everyone else to know.
  • As far as making the comments in code, I don’t feel that it provides a large enough audience (only the developer making the changes would ever see them). In addition, after all of the changes were made per the comments, you would (hopefully) be left with a clean method or class that doesn’t give any indication of the struggles it took to get there. Sure it is in the version control system, but who is ever really going to look in there to see the trials and tribulations that it took?

With a forum-based peer review you overcome the obstacles and limitations of meetings and comments in code.

  • The reviewer can conduct the code review on their own time.
  • The reviewee can digest they comments on their schedule (and they don’t have to frantically scribble notes in a meeting).
  • In addition, since it can often be hard to get multiple senior people in a room at the same time, the forum allows others to contribute when and where they see fit.
  • In addition, capturing the back and forth between the interested parties is very values.
  • Not too mention the benefit of referring new employees to the forum during their first couple of days to get a feel for how things are done in your shop.
  • Code changes made as part of a review can have a note on check-in referring back to the thread to help document how that particular piece of code got to where it is.
  • And we can’t forget about links. If your standards documentation is fairly granular, you can link to the specific standard that is in question.

In the thirteen years and five companies that I have developed for, I haven’t run across forums being used as a code review platform/tool, but I definitely want to give it a shot. We’ve all seen the "Why doesn’t this work?" or "How does my code look?" posts on various public forums but I hope to put something a little better in place internally. As Jeff Atwood says, "Code Reviews: Just Do It." If this doesn’t work out, I’ll have to check out Peer Reviews in Software: A Practical Guide. If you have any comments or suggestions based on experience, please let me know below.

Of course, in order to facilitate the process, I needed to make some minor changes to CS to support syntax highlighting. This post originally started out to document those tweaks but it got hi-jacked. Maybe on my next post!

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