University of Toronto	Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering	The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)	Jim Prall, ECE Systems administrator	my photo album - Our Morocco trip album	My pages on climate scientists and skeptics

I am a system administrator and tech support contact for all research computing within ECE, along with our support group of Eugenia, Jay, Norman, Yong and Matthew.
All support requests should be addressed not to me directly, but to our common support email that connects to our "RT" support ticketing system using the ECE help email address which you should have received already.

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KEY TOPICS

• Back up data from your PC - see my page on BACKUPS Note that ECE backs up server accounts but not data stored locally on your desktop PC or laptop!
• Use SiteAdvisor and/or Web of Trust to screen websites for malware content, both download links and scripted "push" content. They provide a plug-in for Internet Explorer and one for Firefox (requires separate installs for each browser.)
• Don't fall for "phishing" scams - false websites and email claiming to be from your bank, credit card, PayPal, etc. seeking your personal info. See the Anti-Phishing Working Group.
  
• Update to MS Internet Explorer 8, which has numerous security improvements, or use an alternative browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome in place of Internet Explorer. Update older releases of Firefox to the latest from the mozilla.org website. They also offer a great free e-mail client Thunderbird
• Keep Windows systems current with security updates - You can use the built-in Microsoft Update service which combines the functions of WindowsUpdate and OfficeUpdate. You should have Automatic Updates ON and allow updates to install on their own.
• Use the latest edition of Putty for remote SSH logins and WinSCP for secure remote file transfer (updated periodically - check if yours is current; replace your older editions of these immediately.)
• Use virus protection - UofT has a license for Symantec AntiVirus for all staff and students for both office and home use. No charge to you!
• Avoid Spyware - basic info at Comparitech; See also PC Privacy and Security checklists, StopBadware and spyware researcher Ben Edelman. Our own Computer Engineering group includes research on internet security, such as this work by Prof. David Lie.
• Some spyware "removal" tools contain spyware! details here and here. Don't trust any product claiming to remove spyware unless you've checked out its bona fides, and NEVER accept a program that arrives as a pop-up reporting you are already infected and should "click here to remove." These "Scare-ware" products are a scam. They just bring more infections. Certainly you should never pay for a program that invited itself in to tell you about spyware!
• My advice: use these two excellent, free scanners: SpyBot S&D and Windows Defender. Microsoft bought out an excellent commercial package named Giant Antispyware, and they renamed it Microsoft Antispyware during beta testing, and in its final release, Windows Defender. It has automatic updating for its search patterns. Another tool free for individual home use (there is a small fee for use at Universities) is "Ad-Aware Personal" from Lavasoft.
• UofT does not support peer-to-peer file sharing software over the University network. If you load it on your laptop, it will run in the background at startup, and share everything you've downloaded or shared; this can trip you up when you bring your laptop to the office: the P2P may be sharing silently over the UofT network even if you haven't launched the application. At home, be wary of file sharing software. It is a major way for viruses to spread (often disguised with appealing filenames like "Brittney nude" or "Latest Photoshop cracked!" etc. A lot of P2P client installers have spyware embedded - see this list.
• MacOS X has strong security features and is resistant to most conventional Windows viruses, but still must be kept up-to-date against the threat of network hacking like any other OS. For self-managed MacOS systems, I recommend users subscribe to the Apple security-announce mailing list and apply all security patches released by Apple as soon as they are available.
• Virtual versions of Windows are just as vulnerable to viruses and worms. If you install Windows under an emulator in another OS, such as Apple's Parallels or Linux WINE, be sure to install anti-virus, Windows Defender, SpyBot SD, and allow automatic updates just as on a "real" install.

Quick links

X11 server for Windows

We've recently reviewed several X11 servers for MS Windows. We had previously recommended X-Deep/32 from Pexus, but this is no longer available as freeware. It may still be suitable as a purchased commercial product for those willing to pay. That leaves two other free X11 option we know of, Xming and Cygwin. Xming is compact and simple to install, and it works. One drawback of Cygwin for people used to MS Windows is the complexity of Cygwin's unix-like environment (with its many package options and potentially many thousands of small files on your windows disk.) However some find Cygwin the most powerful and full-featured. Take your pick.

Firefox: New Choice for Web Browsing

Many of the security problems in Windows get in through the aging web browser, Internet Explorer (the familiar 'blue e' icon). There has long been a choice for Windows users to install another web browser instead, such as Netscape. More recently, two new alternatives have become available: Firefox and Google Chrome. Firefox provides tabbed browsing, automatic pop-up blocking and lots of other web security enhancements, and is extensible with many free plug-ins for added features. In May 2005 the Mozilla team marked 50 Million downloads of Firefox!

One major plus for Firefox is unlimited text zoom, which I find immensely beneficial. Use CTL-[+] to enlarge and CTL-[-] to reduce text size, or use CTL+[scroll wheel] to scroll through multiple text sizes quickly. A nice break from squinting at small type! Internet Explorer limits you to only 5 text sizes in total.

All users of Mozilla Firefox should update to the latest version download here.

One caution: Firefox is not covered by Microsoft's "automatic updates," so you need to watch for alerts to download each new release to get its latest security updates. That's quite easy, though. Watch for a red arrow circle at the upper-right of your Firefox window, alerting you that a new version or update is available. Click it, download the new version, close Firefox, and run the installer. It's small and quick to download, and really fast installing - well under a minute.

FireFox supports a variety of add-ons, plug-ins and extensions to customize it. One good choice for extra security is NoScript an add-on to prevent sites from running JavaScript until you add them to your "white list" of trusted sites.

Another package from the Mozilla group is the browser + email suite Mozilla.

Choose any of these alternative browsers over Internet Explorer -- a great way to avoid all the network attacks focused on the seemingly endless supply of security flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

• Mozilla is a suite including mail and newsreader, browser and HTML editor.
• Firefox is a separate branch (though similar) with browser alone.
• Thunderbird is a mail client (only) similar to that in Mozilla.

I have been using Firefox for a couple of months now and I'm mostly very impressed. A few pages that don't look right in Firefox require me to go back to MSIE, but only for those. Another alternate browser I have not tried but that some users like a lot is Opera which allows free downloads of an advertisement-supported version, or you can pay to get it with no ads.
Note that Microsoft requires use of MS Internet Explorer on their vital WindowsUpdate and OfficeUpdate sites. Thus, you have to retain MSIE even if you switch to another browser for all your daily web access.
Also, Firefox has trouble displaying some specialized content such as certain JavaScript animations. If you run into this problem in Firefox, simply right-click anywhere in the page and choose "Open this page in IE" at the end of the pop-up context menu. (Just get out of IE as soon as you can afterward!)

KEEP YOUR DATA BACKED UP!

CHECK WINDOWS UPDATE

There is a separate update website for Microsoft Office products. Go to Office Online and click on "Check for Updates" there to get patches and updates to your MS Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, FrontPage, Visio). Note that you must use MS Internet Explorer for this - alternate browsers will not be able to get updates (why not? Ask Microsoft...)

CHECK ANTIVIRUS DEFINITIONS ARE UPDATED

If you are infected with the Blaster worm, you can prevent your PC from rebooting by killing the process named "MSBLAST.EXE" before going on with the patch and the FixBlast tool. Open the Task Manager by pressing Control+ALT+DEL (once!); in the Processes tab, find the process named MSBLAST.EXE, click on it, and click "End Process", then confirm that you want to end it. This will allow you to keep working on your PC to remove the worm and prevent it returning.

The more recent Welchia worm may not cause your PC to reboot, but may cause it to be very slow. Open the Task Manager and look for a process named DLLHOST.EXE. You may not be able to "End Process" on this. Get the FixWelch tool, run it, and this will stop and remove the Welchia worm. Then apply the MS03-026 patch (same patch as for Blaster worm) and restart Windows. If you run into any trouble applying the patch or getting up-to-date antivirus definitions, get help from me or anyone you can.

Keep Up With The Latest Patches and Updates to Windows

Don't Open E-Mail Attachments

Microsoft NEVER e-mails any patches or updates to customers

Conserve electric power: Click here for instructions on setting power save mode on your display under Windows. Click here for instructions on setting power save mode on your display under linux.

TOP PICKS

IMPORTANT NOTICES to ALL WINDOWS USERS:

Product information

Reviews and customer feedback sites:

Technical info:

Some local computer stores near us:

Canadian mail order sites:

Book picks

Book suggestions related to engineering:

Normal Accidents : living with high-risk technologies by Charles Perrow [New York : Basic Books, c1984.]
-- 5 copies in UT Library system including 2 at Eng. Library.
An excellent survey of the many ways that systems fail and the sometimes bizarre consequences. Memorable and a great source of cautionary lines of thought. I have retold several of the disasters recounted in this book at parties, to good effect.

To Engineer is Human : the role of failure in successful design by Henry Petroski. [New York : Vintage Books, 1992.]
-- 4 copies in UTL including 2 at Eng. Library.
An enjoyable account of the engineering way of life. Reflections on what it means to be an engineer. Highly readable.

Fatal Defect : chasing killer computer bugs by Ivars Peterson. [New York : Times Books, c1995.]
-- One copy at Gerstein Library.
An engrossing look at the perils of software-based systems in control of safety-critical applications. Inspired by the fascinating discussions over recent years in the comp.risks newsgroup. A must-read for anyone looking to work in a field where software plays a part in systems control.

The Cuckoo's Egg: tracking a spy through the maze of computer espionage by Cliff Stoll. [New York : Doubleday, 1989.] One of the granddads of the internet as we know it, Stoll writes a truly engaging and amusing account of his time as a "volunteer" unix admin during his grad studies at Berkeley.