Agenda

Programming submissions - due

How are the Res Tech massage boards coming?

Ad-aware: free software that removes spyware and adware (includes Refupdate)

Free, online virus scanning - for students w/o a virus scanner

Training: Testing audio and video problems

Programming submissions - due

- Please begin planning your short programs.  I expect all submissions to be in by this training.
- If you need any help from me, please let me know.
- You can also get help from other techs.

How are the Res Tech message boards coming?

- I see that the boards are being used.
- No links to businesses!
- Feedback - how useful do you think these boards are?

Ad-aware
Updating Ad-aware

Adaware is a bit of freeware from a company called Lavasoft (http://www.lavasoftusa.com). It is similar in function to a virus scanner, but scans your computer for files, registry entries and any running processes related to adware and spyware.  Remember, these types of programs piggyback with file-sharing applications like Kazaa and Morpheus, as well as other programs, and run in the background pushing ads and affecting the nature of the computer's network behavior. 

Effective use of Ad-aware involves the simple download of two pieces of software:  Ad-aware and RefUpdate2.0. Refupdate is a small utility that downloads updates to Ad-aware, and installs the updates, not unlike Norton's live update.  RefUpdate means Reference Updater.   These programs are downloaded separately.

To download Ad-aware, go to http://www.cnet.com, and enter "Ad-aware" into the search field.  When you see the search hit, click it, and click "Download Now" when the Ad-aware page comes up.  Download the file to the desktop, and double-click to install it.  BTW, at this point, there is no Mac version of this software.  To download RefUpdate 2.0, do the same thing, and place the name of the program into the search field.  Perform the identical download and setup procedure as with Ad-aware.

Click here for a screenshot of Ad-aware

Once you have installed Ad-aware, go through the following steps:

a. Open the program and click the following options in the left-hand pane:

- Scan Memory
- Scan Registry
   > Quick Scan (under Scan Registry)
   > Deep Scan (under Scan Registry)
- Click the boxes by the drives you want to scan.
Click here for a screenshot of the checked options


b. Click the "Scan Now" button.

The program scans your system, in a manner not unlike a virus scanning application.  At the end, a summary of the numbers of components found is displayed. 
Click here for a screenshot of a completed scan


c. Click the "Continue" button. 

- The components that program has found are displayed near checkboxes. 
- You may choose individual components, or right click and choose "Check All".    
- Click "Continue" and confirm the prompt to clean all components. 
Click here for screen shots of the cleaning process

WARNING: DELETING ALL COMPONENTS WILL INACTIVATE THE ASSOCIATED FILE SHARING PROGRAM.  THAT PROGRAM WILL HAVE TO BE RE-INSTALLED. 
Remember that re-installing the file-sharing program can re-install the adware/spyware.

This is for your information only, and is not to be used without discretion.  While it is a safe program to use, it WILL inactivate the file sharing programs permanently.  We would use this in the case where we find excessive adware and spyware running on a system.


Updating Ad-aware

Adaware needs updated "signature files" not unlike a virus scanning program needs updated .dat files to keep it's ability to recognize the components in question up to date.  To update Ad-aware, open RefUpdate, and choose a connection site from the drop-down menu.  Then, click the "Connect" button.  If an update is needed, it will be downloaded and automatically installed.
 

Free Online Virus Scanning

Many students here do not have a virus scanner on campus.  Others have scanners, buit their update subscriptions have expired.For Windows computers, there is another option.  It is http://www.antivirus.com.  This site opens a java window in the browser which is an application which will, to the best of its ability, scan the computer for viruses, and clean whatever it finds.  The beauty of it is that the student does not need to worry about updating the scan.  The problem is that the scan does not work unless the student manually goes to the site and starts the scan.  In other words, there's no background protection.  Obviously, this will only work is the student has a network connection.

a.  Go to http://www.antivirus.com.
b.  Click the "Free Tools" link at the top.
c.  Click "Scan your PC -- FREE".
d.  Enter an e-mail address into the e-mail field, or click "Scan without registering".
e.  If prompted to install the program, accept the prompt.  This may take a couple of minutes.
f.  Choose the drive you want scanned.  You can choose any drive present on the computer.
g.  Check the "Auto Clean" box, and click the "Scan" button.

This is not a full featured virus scan, but it is fairly effective at finding viruses.  Thus, it is not a bad tool to use if the student has no virus scan, or one that it out of date.

If the student has any kind of virus scan, disable it before going through this procedure! 
To disable a virus-scan program, right click on the tray icon for the virus scan, and disable it.