Inbox

By DON McALLISTER

Welcome to InBox, where we attempt to answer your internet questions.


If you suspect you're a victim of the latest W32. BugBear@mm virus nasty, Norton (Symantec) has now posted a removal tool. The "BugBear" worm, which opens back doors on computers and logs keystrokes, surfaced two weeks ago but the infection rate appeared to be slowing last week. The virus takes advantage of a known vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and can be automatically run by reading the email and not opening the attachment. In addition, BugBear tries to copy itself to other types of devices attached to shared corporate networks, such as printers. If successful, hundreds of pages of code get printed out.

Q. Jim and Craig both recently installed ZoneAlarm (an internet firewall) and query some of the "allow or deny" messages it spits up, such as "application layer gateway" (ALG) or "generic host process" (GHP). Should they block or enable these applications?

A. An internet firewall stops unwanted intruders entering or even exiting your system carrying information. Just as your car has a firewall to insulate you from dangers within the engine compartment, an internet firewall effectively places a protective wall between your computer and the dangers of the outside world. Both the queried processes are Windows components designed to allow certain external software to operate. The rule of thumb is to temporarily deny these requests, but take note of any subsequent problems. It's easy to enable access later when you identify the programs affected. GHP, for example, is commonly used by Norton to access and monitor the internet and ALG is used by firewalls or Connection Sharing.

Q. Graham, Jan and Rhiannon are all finding that their "Defrag" program for cleaning up their hard disks runs but never stops.

A. Time and time again users get hooked into a defrag that stalls on 10 per cent and then sits there for hours. This common problem is easily eliminated by restarting the machine in "Safe Mode" for the duration of defrag, or by using a well-proven program like PowerDefrag.



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