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Archive for December, 2008

The go.google.com / vundo.trojan virus and how to remove it

December 21st, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

Thanks to all the helpful tips found at Trouble Fixers and Precise Security that helped me make this guide.  Try one of these tips: one of them will do the trick.

  1. Try downloading Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and if the installer won’t start then try renaming the installer file.  This software is very light-weight, but still it will remove most components of the virus.
  2. This is an important step: Go to the start menu, and right click on My Computer, and click on Manage.
    Then, go to the Device Manager under System Tools.  Then go to the view menu and click on Show Hidden Devices.  Go to Non-Plug and Play Drivers and find tdssserv.sys.  Right-click on the device and click on Properties.  First of all, check the section that says Device Status.  If that box says This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Code 24), then this is a good thing.  That means MBAM (Malwarebytes) removed this device’s drivers.  No matter what though, in the drop-down menu below that, click on Disable Device.  Then click on OK.
  3. Now, close Computer Management.  Head back to the start menu and click on Run.  Then, type regedit into the box and hit enter.  Then, press Ctrl+F on your keyboard and then type TDSS.  Hit enter.  Wait for a second, and then wait until it finds something.  If and when it finds a key, right click the whole Key in the left panel and delete it.  Then keep on pressing Ctrl+F until you’ve found all the keys and deleted them.  You may not be able to delete all of them.  This is ok, just try though.
  4. Go to your start menu and click on search and then click on All Files and Folders, and then type in TDSS in the search box in the All or Part of the File Name box and in the Look In drop down menu, select the hard disk windows is installed on.  Delete all the search results.
  5. Try installing AVG.  This removes lots of stuff, and has active virus prevention, so when the virus tries to launch a process, it notices immediately and helps remove the threat.  This is a good idea to use.  You can download AVG Free edition here.  If the installer will not load, then try renaming it, as we did to MBAM.  You could also try doing this after the system restore if the installer will not load.  Also, if the MBAM installer will not load no matter what, then do the system restore first.
  6. If you’re still having trouble with stuff popping up when using your internet browser, then try doing a system restore.  Go to the Start menu, click on All Programs, go to Accessories, go to System Tools and click on System Restore.  Follow the steps.  Only do this if all the other steps didn’t help get rid of the virus.

Hope you fix your virus problems!!!!

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XP drivers for NVidia GeForce 8400M GS

December 12th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Offline, Tech

Get the drivers here:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/nvidia/180series/18070.exe

After much searching this is the one that works!

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Windows Setup freeze

December 12th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in How Tos, Offline, Tech

Having trouble with windows setup not starting, and just freezing on “Setup is inspecting your computers hardware configuration”?

Here’s a couple handy suggestions:

  • If you happen to have one plugged in, try unplugging your external hard drive

    Note: This also works for regular Windows XP installs, when they hang on startup and it just shows a blank screen until you unplug the drive.

  • if the above one didn’t work, try creating an NTFS partition that is smaller than the whole drive (you can do this using a linux live cd like Ubuntu).
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    Send Large Files with Podmailing

    December 7th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in How Tos, Online, Tech

    Sure you can use my old solution “Transfer Files Easily with Bittorrent“, but the problem is, that solution isn’t really that simple.  Here’s a brand new solution that I really like: Podmailing.  It’s a reliable way to transfer files, and it’s super simple too.

    Download Podmailing

    Read the FAQs and soon you’ll be transferring tons of stuff. Podmailing uses P2P technology to send files.

    You can even upload files to the Vipeers service, within the program, and that online service automatically generates multiple

    The only downside with this service that I found was the fact that both clients need Podmailing, but it is so easy to install, so it’s not much of a problem. Another thing I found was that the program hung when you tried to connect to the servers the first time I ran the program, but after I restarted, it worked fine.

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    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Book Review

    December 7th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Non-Tech, Offline, Reviews

    Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    This book is quite an interesting read, yet still disappointingly short. It could have been developed into a very satisfying novel, because the story idea is quite captivating.

    The story is humorous because it’s completely different and unusual compared to real life, because people don’t age backwards.  When Mr. Button went into the hospital and was asking people about his baby, it was funny because everyone he asked about his child had a terrified look on their faces, and each next person he talked to made him more and more anxious about his baby.  What was funnier, when he eventually got to see his baby, it turned out to be an old man.

    Another thing I found funny was the fact that Roger Button was so in denial of the fact that his ‘child’ was not a baby, even to the point of asking a store clerk whether “the paint would come off the pink duck if the baby put it in his mouth”.

    What was also ironic about Benjamin marrying a younger woman was that in actuality they were both the same age yet it looked like he was 50.

    What was also funny was how the story showed how short people’s memories are – it’s ironic because, at first people were sad for the girl being married to a man of 50.  But as Benjamin’s age “decreased”, people were then sad for him being married to a woman of 50 (although in actuality they were the same age)!  They couldn’t even remember that a while ago, they were saying the exact opposite thing!

    Also, as Benjamin got “younger” he didn’t like his wife Hildegard anymore because she got older, and as she got older Benjamin didn’t find her beautiful anymore.  Benjamin married Hildegard for her good looks, and Hildegard married Benjamin for his stability, and what happened was that Hildegard lost her good looks and Benjamin lost his stability, so their relationship didn’t work anymore.  Basically, as he got younger, she got older.

    Read the book online here (just to let you know, there’s a few typos).

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    How to bypass webpages through Firewall using Proxies!

    December 4th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in How Tos, Offline, Online, Tech

    Having trouble viewing your favorite website or posting on a forum
    at school when you get a page like this?

    Here’s how to bypass it.

    Firstly, go to this website – Proxy Server Website.  Choose a server that is near you.  Look in the host:port column, and copy (highlight and press Ctrl+C) one of the servers in that column.  Then use the following steps.

    In Firefox

    Go to the Tools menu, and click on Options.  Click on the Advanced section (the one with the Gear), and then go to the Network tab.  Under Connection, click on Settings, and in the new window that comes up, click on the Manual Proxy Configuration radio button.

    Paste (Ctrl+V) the proxy server address you copied earlier into the “HTTP Proxy” box (or you can just type the one I used).  Also, as you can see in the picture above, you should check the “Use this proxy server for all protocols” box.  Once you’ve pasted it, the last 4 numbers (called the Port Number) you need to copy and then paste into the “Port” box, and when you are done that, delete the colon that is left so it should look like this:

    All set?  Great!  Hit OK and keep on browsing!

    Internet Explorer

    Go to the Start Menu, then click on Control Panel (on older computers it may be in the settings menu), and then set it to classic view and click on Internet Options (you can also do this inside MSIE by going to the Tools menu and clicking on Internet Options).

    In Internet Options, click on the Connections tab.  Then, click on Lan Settings (a button near the bottom).  In the dialog box, check “Use a Proxy Server for your LAN”.  Check “Bypass Proxy Server for Local Addresses”. As described in Firefox above, paste the address of the Proxy Server that you copied earlier into the box.  Then copy the last four numbers into the port box to the right of it.

    It should look like this when you’re done:

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