Attention Skype Users!

Quick heads up for all you Skype users!

A new trojan horse spreading through Skype is causing havoc among home & business PC's.  Once on the infected PC, the trojan begins BitMining for BitCoints (a virtual & untraceable currency that is gaining popularity).  Potential victims are encouraged to install a file that is included with messages like "this my favourite picture of you". If the malicious file is installed, one of its features is to turn the machine into a Bitcoin mining slave.

A hacker controlling 100,000 of these trojans can easily make over $270,000 a day with current bitcoin prices.

If you use Skype and your computer seems to be running slow lately, open up your task manager and see if any program is using 50-99% of your CPU.   If so, you may be infected and should do a boot-time scan with your Avast Anti-Virus (You are using Avast aren't you?).  If this does not remove the infection, or if you'd rather not mess with it yourself, please contact me for a remote or on-site support session.

-Matt

The most important tweak for your Microsoft Server running Exchange 2010.

In Microsoft's infinite wisdom, they decided to have the Exchange software hoard every free speck of RAM on it's host system in an effort to minimize pagefile use and speed up end-user experience.  The result in reality is a system that struggles to keep up with just about any application, including the mail system itself.  The fix is fast and fairly simple for those with some decent IT knowledge.

To determine how much RAM to let Exchange play with, an easy formula I use is 66% of total system RAM for multi-role servers, and 75% total RAM for servers dedicated to the mailbox role.

1) Start the server's ADSI editor
2) Navigate to Configuration > Services > Microsoft Exchange > <Organization Name> > Administrative Groups > <Administrative Group> > Servers > <Server Name> > InformationStore
3) Right-click InformationStore, and edit msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax. Set it it to the number of pages to maximize the Database Cache to. (Pages = M x 32768) Where "M" is the number of GB's of RAM you want to set aside for Exchange.
4) (only necessary in Exchange SP1 which you SHOULD be using!) edit the msExchESEparamCacheSizeMin parameter and set it to 256.
5) Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service for the change to become effective.

Why Java is junk, and how to uninstall it.

BEZALU SECURITY ALERT: Attention all computer users (this includes you too Mac fans)
Due to recent outbreaks in Java based malware/viruses. It is HIGHLY recommended to disable/remove Java from your system. The majority of virus writers have moved to exploiting Java security vulnerabilities. This is due to them being able to infect Windows, Macs, and Linux systems all with one exploit. Java was behind over half a million macs becoming infected with the flashback virus last year. Some security sites are recommending disabling Java, but I recommend uninstalling it completely just to be safe. If you actually need it for something like an online meeting through your company, it only takes a few minutes to download and reinstall it from java.com.

WINDOWS USERS,
You can uninstall it just like any other piece of software under "Control Panel > Uninstall a program". Remove anything under "Java" or "Java Update" or "Java Runtime". Restart the PC.

MAC/OSX USERS,
Click on the Finder icon located in your dock
Click on Applications tab on the sidebar
In the Search box enter JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
This will find the JavaAppletPlugin.plugin file
Right click on JavaAppletPlugin.plugin and select Move to Trash

LINUX USERS,
Open Terminal Window
Log in as the super user
Type: rm /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so
You will be prompted to remove symbolic link:
rm: /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so ?
Type: Y

How To Fix Error 80072EFD On Small Business Server 2008

How To Fix Error 80072EFD On Small Business Server 2008

Microsoft Security Essentials

While I don't have time for a full post,  I just wanted to remind anyone visiting today that I only recommend Microsoft Security Essentials for older computers running XP and Vista computers with less than 2GB RAM.  I recommend a combination of Avast! & MalwareBytes installed together, with each set to ignore each others processes, and either pay for MalwareBytes to get the automatic scans, or use my scripts to have it run weekly.

~Matt

Fake Reviews

Just to prove you can't trust anything on the Internet these days,  there is a surge of companies that offer (for a small fee) to spam google, yelp, and other sites with fake positive reviews.  They cater to companies that have garnered a bad reputation from dissatisfied customers, and post so many fake positive reviews about the company, that most people surfing the net would never come across the negative comments.  This is so much as a rant, as a warning to all you internet review searchers.  Take everything you see on the web with a grain of salt.

Home Networking - Wireless-N vs. CAT5e vs. CAT6

With Internet Service Providers cranking up the speeds available to home users, and home media servers becoming more popular, it's starting to become more important in what kind of networking you use at home.   Otherwise you may be paying for speeds you can't even achieve with your hardware.


First off, if you are still using a Wireless G router (54mbps), and have anything better than DSL, it's a pretty safe bet that your wireless device Internet speeds are being held back by your wireless router.  With that being said, prices of Wireless-N type routers have dropped to under $30, so there's really no reason not to upgrade considering you probably pay over $50 a month for your Internet.  Also, while looking over the results, remember that ISP's like Comcast & Verizon are offering internet speeds now of over 150mbps!

I decided to bench test a lower priced wireless-N router, versus hardwired networking connections via a gigabit switch with both CAT5e and CAT6 cabling.  Here is my very non-scientific setup...

Equipment:
Wireless N Router: D-Link DIR-615 w/ newest stock firmware.
Gigabit Switch: Trendnet GreenNet 8-Port
ISP: Comcast 10mbps constant, 36mbps boost
Cabling: CAT5e 350Mhz Rated & CAT6 550Mhz Rated (CCI Bulk with self crimped connectors, used shielded connectors on CAT6) Cables cut to 30 foot lengths.
Hardware: Two i7-920 Desktops with 6GB RAM & Realtek PCI-E Gigabit network controllers. Jumbo frames set to 9K.

Methods:
Used LanBench opensource network speed testing software to take hard drive speeds out of the equation as much as possible.  Ran five 30-second tests of receiving, and sending 100MB packets over 2 connections.
Out of the five tests, I took the average of the top 3 scores.
 

Results (ALL SPEEDS IN MEGABITS PER SECOND UNLESS NOTED OTHERWISE)
D-Link Wireless N Router via WIRELESS (Open view, about 10 feet away from router)
Send: 50.47
Receive: 64.16

D-Link Wireless N Router via WIRED CAT5e (100mbps ports on router)
Send: 60.86
Receive: 93.4

Trendnet Gigabit Switch WIRED via CAT5e (1000mbps full duplex ports)
Send: 886.73
Receive: 939.44

Trendnet Gigabit Switch WIRED via CAT6 (1000mbps full duplex ports)
Send: 890.42
Receive: 945.54

Conclusion
The performance of wireless was all over the place during the tests.  For comparison, I tested a Netgear WNDR3700 wireless N router and did achieve better results, but it also costs 5 times as much.  Overall I don't see wireless as a complete solution.  It's great to have for smart phones, and laptops.  But having a desktop running on a wireless connection just doesn't seem logical.  I know some have issues with location, and that's why they invented PowerLine networking (google it). As for CAT5e vs CAT6,  unless you want to future proof your home network for many many years to come, or the need to have a few 200+ foot runs of cable in your mansion, it just doesn't make sense to pay 50% more in cabling and connectors for CAT6 at this time. 

Importance of Jumbo Frames
For curiosity sake, I attempted the wired gigabit tests with Jumbo Frames set to disabled, and performance took a complete nosedive.  What just got me nearly 950 Mbps, dropped to under 270Mbps, simply by changing that one setting in the NIC card.  The important part of this being, Gigabit cards are set to have jumbo frames disabled by default since some older hardware can't handle it, and enabling them may actually hurt performance.  But it's a simple check in the manual or the website of the manufacturer to find out.