Sunday, October 10, 2004 - Posts

Software Update: Diskeeper 9 & Trend Internet Security 2005

Just a quick update on two applications I simply cant live without having updated in the last couple of weeks...

Trend Internet Security 2005

The new IS version includes numerous additions including spyware detection (not as great as Adaware but its fast) and a unique (from what i've been seeing since the start of beta testing) feature called “Turbo-Scan” that (i'm guessing) hashes the files scanned so it doesnt have to rescan them later if the hashes match, I'm sure Symantec will bring out something close only bloated a little later...

Some other cool things:

  • Security Check
    This is basically checking if your system is vunerably by checking if various patches have been installed. Quite useful and it can be scheduled like scanning too.
  • Remote Management
    Something i've craved for ages... Having to manage 8 PCs at home isnt easy but imagine network adminstrators that have hundreds? IS2005 has this cool feature that allows you to scan your system for possible versions of IS that can interact (only 2005 at this stage) and so long as the passwords match you can remotely manage the system in terms of Internet Security, like initiate a virus/spyware/security scan, tell it to update or compare versions, enable/disable settings etc. Anyone who has even two PCs hooked up will love it.
  • Firewall Updated
    Now the firewall can restrict applications and not just ports (not sure if this was available previously having never used the firewall a great deal) and it interacts with SP2's firewall (it would have been great if it migrated the WF settings to Internet Security so you can disable WF and use the IS one...)
  • Wireless Features
    Now this is something thats going to affect us more as time goes on, IS includes wireless intrusion detection - which btw actually works. Back in 2000-2002 when we were bored after school we'd take a friends van which had a dish and go around hte city looking for wireless hotspots (the early adopters) and you wouldnt believe the amount of hotspots we'd discover which were open to anyone (yes anyone) with no security whatsoever. Sinceu then the standards have improved and now peopl are actually using WPA/WEP but even so its easy to attempt to scan and possibly hack other users that have a wireless adapter installed.

All in all as you can see I'm a big fan of  PC-Cillin (or Internet Security), its fast, low resource usage and wont bloat your system with useless junk like some Symantec software does.

http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/desktop/pc-cillin/evaluate/overview.htm

If you were a tester your key should have arrived about a week or so ago along with the U/P to access Trend's private FTP area to download it.

Diskeeper 9 is out... *yayy!*

One of the best defrag tools out there has finally got a new version out. I have yet to buy the upgrade but running the trial on a SP2 machine (2.53/2GBRAM/2x250GB RAID 0) it seems to be quite alot faster than v8.0 was, if your after a good solid defrag tool take a look at Diskeeper.

posted Sunday, October 10, 2004 9:41 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

FixPack 2 for HotHTML 3, The Election, MSI 3 Patch, etc...

We've been gearing up for FixPack 2 for HotHTML 3 so its been quite busy the past two days writing/updating websites, writing KB articles and finalising quality assurance testing so i've been quiet on the blogs.

The Election

Well for those not in Australia, we had our elections yesterday. Long story short the party i voted for didnt win, and the existing government will stay. How could people vote liberal when they spin so much sheet? Why do people forget the past 4 or however long years our prime-minister's been in power? The children overboard scandal? the war in iraq or WMD or terrorism (or whatever the US government has since renamed it to) which australia should have kept its butt out of? The GST? and many more... Bahhh... Enjoy the painful future that awaits us.

MSI 3 Patch for SP2

Microsoft have released a patch to fix a potential problem when MSI will stop responding when installing an update... (an update to update a bug that has a problem when its updating something? hmmmm...) Its available here and its recommended you download it if you are running SP2.

New Help and Support Site

Microsoft are preparing a new support site to make it easier to navigate and get “support” for their products, heres some cool video's that demonstrate the work they are doing at the moment....

Broadband connections
Dial-up/ISDN connections
Download Content (38 MB)

All require Windows Media Player installed (*suprise*)

WinRAR 3.4 make over

I'm a regular NeoWin reader(shame on you if your not), and just found a post by SentientPC who has done a total rework of the WinRAR v3.4 GUI based on FOOODs icons. not does it make WinRAR look so much better it puts everyone's comments about WinZIP being “user-friendly” and nice looking in the toilet after a full flush... checkout the screenshot and definaetly go and download it.

I've spent some time pulling apart WinRAR's self-extracting executable stub with PE Explorer changing the way it looks, but this conversion of the actual WinRAR GUI is quite extensive, its awesome.

posted Sunday, October 10, 2004 8:55 AM by wsoftware with 1 Comments