InBox

By DON McALLISTER

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

Q. Bob is trying to understand the hibernation feature of his computer.

"When it hibernates, does it turn off the power the same as shutdown? Does the hibernation time start after the standby period or from when the computer was last used?"

A. Hibernation shuts down all electrical components, Bob. It saves all current open programs and information in a section of the hard drive to be retrieved when the machine is next started, so work in progress can continue from the moment it was last being attended to. Hibernation activation time delay starts from the moment the computer was last used.

Q. "I'm getting 'Possible Browser Hijack Attempt' running Ad-aware6," Wyevern complains. "I delete the spyware, but it just comes back again."

Lavasoft, the Ad-aware creator, in trying to combat some variants of CoolWebSearch, which use "about:blank" as a start/search page, has added this as a trigger to the detected objects, Wyevern.

Lavasoft is working on the issue. If you've allowed Ad-aware to remove the suspected hijack, tell Ad-aware to restore it and ignore it, then download CWShredder.

Q. Further on the Xtra virus detection auto responses

A. KB, who claims to be on the Xtra helpdesk and therefore checking the abuse@xtra.co.nz email box, is angry with us for suggesting that unverified responses be bounced there, as the mailbox is not intended for that purpose.

Yes KB, I'm well aware of that box's intended purpose, but if monitored it will produce a response, as your email has proven.

Neil suggests the logical solution for server programmers would be:

If this datagram contains a virus, then does the sending domain (or address) equal the reply domain (or address)? If not, assume the address has been spoofed and don't bother replying.



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