Computer Info – October 9, 2002

This Week’s Meeting

Discuss audio editing programs and how to input cassette tapes into digital audio files on the computer. How to check your volume control to determine where your audio input is coming from. Talk about DVD writers again. Question and answer time.

DVD Formats

(Info from PC World Magazine – November, 2002)

With the DVD format battle in full swing and no clear winner in sight, manufacturers are hedging their bets by introducing drives that handle more than one standard.

One of the most exciting newcomers is Sony's groundbreaking $349 DRU-500A. Not only does this burner write DVD+RW and +R at 2.4X, it also writes the competing DVD-R and DVD-RW formats. And get this: It does so at 4X and 2X -- twice as fast as current dedicated DVD-R and DVD-RW drives. Toss in up to 24X CD-R burning and 10X CD-RW burning, and this is the drive that every fan of rewritable technology will search for this holiday.

Remember the last couple of weeks we have talked about DVD writers since we had finally tried ours out. We stopped at Office Max to pick up a couple of DVD-R (writeable DVDs) so that we could do some testing again; but they only handle DVD+R – and we haven’t searched for another place to get them yet. We also have discovered that a DVD-R is much cheaper than a DVD+R. We really still do not know much about DVD writers or problems, etc. – but wanted to pass on information as we learn about it.

Latest Virus – W32.Bugbear@mm

We actually received this virus yesterday – but we are unsure of who it came from. We had undated our virus protection (the DAT files) – so we were protected.

One word of caution --- never open an attachment that has an extension of vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr -- these are all executable files. Remember that many times, TWO extensions with be on an attachment – it is the LAST one that determines what kind of file it is.

W32.Bugbear@mm is a mass-mailing worm. It has keystroke-logging and backdoor capabilities. The worm also attempts to terminate the processes of various antivirus and firewall programs.

It is said that it copies itself to the \Startup folder as ???.exe, where ? represents letters that are chosen by the worm.

Your biggest defense against this virus and many other is ---- don’t run attachments even from people you know unless you are very sure that they tell you about it -- and keep your virus programs up-to-date.

AudioEdit Deluxe 1.6

The description for this program on the Tucows website reads: “This jam-packed audio editor should satisfy every peanut-buttery person in this bread-toting industry. Among its doughy features is the ability to digitally record from the input slot of your sound card. This means that you can archive your old LPs, cassette tapes and other types of analog media in "record-breaking" time. This works for any audio you yearn to play on your computer.”

It can be downloaded from Tucows for a 15 day trial period and costs $40 to purchase.

http://www.tucows.com/mmedia/preview/214861.html

Firewall in Windows XP

One of the new things in Windows XP is the inclusion of a personal firewall, called ICF (Internet Connection Firewall).

The main purpose of a firewall is to inspect Internet traffic and keep unsolicited transmissions from entering your computer. It inspects every single packet that attempts to enter your computer. When a computer sends a transmission to another computer via the Internet, that transmission is broken into packets of information. For example, an email message you send to a friend is disassembled into multiple packets that ultimately find their way to your friend’s computer, where they are reassembled. Packets are able to reach their destination because they contain the address of the computer where they are intended to arrive, as well as the address of the sending computer. ICF records outgoing requests in a log file called Pfirewall.log and checks with the log when a packet attempts to enter your computer. If an incoming packet is not a response to a request originating on your computer, the firewall prevents the packet from entering.

To turn on ICF, click START – CONTROL PANEL – NETWORK AND INTERNET CONNECTIONS – NETWORK CONNECTIONS. Highlight the network connection you want to protect by clicking. Under NETWORKS TASKS in the menu on the left, click CHANGE SETTINGS OF THIS CONNECTION to access the network connection’s properties. You can also access properties by right-clicking the highlighted connection and clicking PROPERTIES. In PROPERTIES, click the ADVANCED tab and select the PROTECT MY COMPUTER AND NETWORK checkbox. Click OK to exit.

To configure ICF, click the SETTINGS button in the lower-right corner of the ADVANCED tab in the CONNECTION PROPERTIES window. This launches ICF’s Advanced Settings window, which consists of three tabs: SERVICES – SECURITY LOGGING – ICMP (Internet Control Messaging Protocol).

Unlike third-party firewalls, ICF works in the background and issues no warning when it blocks an unsolicited transmission. The log file is the only way ICF communicates what it is doing, so periodic review the file.

As firewalls go, ICF is about as minimal as it gets. But it can adequately protect your computer from unwanted intrusion.