Drugwash

My apologies, it was not my intention to offend you; probably a bad choice of words. 'Careful' would've been more appropriate, I guess. I may be too harsh or blunt at times, but never ill-intended.

"If he has a NAT-router, then he won't be exposed to any port scans."Never had a router myself, but it's possible the current ISP keeps me behind one. Dunno what's in that big box on the building's staircase. Connection is PPPoE (broadband dial-up). I've started with 14400 bps dial-up modem, years ago, then an unprofessional neighborhood LAN, then an extended LAN and now this official RCS/RDS broadband subscription. Only seen virii in the modem days, 8-10 years ago and one - in a FREE screensaver - about 2-3 years ago while testing a 98SE/Win2003 dual boot. Obviously the 2003 setup went to hell while 98SE stood tall.

No worries, Rick, not gonna deny your experience in this field. As for the recreation of the Bin, you're probably right - not having seen it for years made my mind rusty in this regard; important thing is, it can safely be deleted at boot time with no adverse effects, other than possibly losing accidentally deleted files.

This proves you're not a very responsible person hence you're more prone to bumping into nasties. All it takes is a 'careless' click (not 'whisper' ) and... better knock on wood, eh? I suppose you could be right on this. However, personally I stick to about the same set of applications and if there was anything bad about them I'd hear it around. Since 9x updates are more and more rare nowadays, the old and trusted versions should be enough and pose no threat.I also try to build my own tools lately, although I pretty much suck at it since I'm quite old and my mind is more like swiss cheese rather than a sponge, so learning goes slow to stalling. But it's fun anyway and it ensures the lack of unwanted "prying eyes". Oh and thanks for the nice line; I believe 1000 words of academic speech cannot have the depth of a couple popular words in a saying.

Uhm... which bin? Remember I don't use any. And even so, completely deleting the Recycle Bin folder(s) through a few autoexec lines would be far easier than using third-party tools and safer since the 32bit subsystem wouldn't have a chance to run any of the (possibly infected) recycled files; Windows will recreate the folder(s) after startup, same as with Temporary Internet Files (Tempor~1 in my post above). As for 'calling home': this may be true for illegally used applications; once one used only legit apps (freeware, open-source or self-built), there's usually no need to switch paranoia mode on. But as always, YMMV. BTW, I liked the wh***s line better.

Right on spot on the recycle bin, Rick, thanks. Just one mention in regard to responsability: knowing the possible outcome of a random, rash click, one would quickly become aware of this in a wider environment such as the Internet. Thinking twice before clicking a link can and will help against infections. Related to cleaning up traces and certain folders - as I mentioned in some other thread - adding a few lines to autoexec.bat (and enabling a few actions in TweakUI) would take care of this: deltree /y %windir%\cookies deltree /y %windir%\history deltree /y %windir%\temp deltree /y %windir%\tempor~1 md %windir%\temp

I've just wasted a few hours on a friend's XP-SP2 machine trying to get rid of the x.exe infection until I finally gave up. He uses Sygate 5.6 firewall and NOD32 antivirus and the (useless) warnings pop up a few minutes after opening a browser window. I use no firewall, no antivirus and have the browser open most of the time while being connected 24/7 and have had no idea what an infection is for years, with Win98SE. There really is nothing more to say on this topic.

There were versions of ZoneAlarm that had a bug in their IM filtering routine which made it impossible for our Miranda IM users to connect to certain protocols anymore. There was no solution other than completely uninstalling ZoneAlarm, at the time. Later on, they (ZA team) apparently fixed it. Just so you know in case you stumble into such issue.

Well, my machine is configured in a quite unsecured way - even Spyware Blaster tells me that, regarding IE settings. Still, 98SE was installed on this HDD on Sep 17, 2006 and never had an infection of any kind. There are certain tweaks that I've performed right after installing and in time, though and I always wanted to put together a collection of such tweaks and maybe even crop an AHK script to give'em a GUI, but my mind's so unfocused lately that I never get around doing it. BTW, neat little tool that Memload, it shows me how hungry eMule is: 161.7 MB. However, SlimBrowser is only at 31.2 MB with 4 open tabs - dunno your SeaMonkey, as it shows a higher memory usage. But really, I got no protection here whatsoever, except for Spyware Blaster. I do believe my (new) ISP keeps me behind a router though, so this may be in my favor.

This topic is specifically about RapidSh.., let's not hijack it into a file sharing discussion.

Yes, user agent can be spoofed or blocked, but I'm not talking exclusively about online infections. Virii can be deployed offline through infected material (i.e. someone got a CD from a friend, installs a game/application and gets infected - or not). A few years ago we've had a virus created on demand to infect the terminals of a certain bank. It would ignore any other machines that were not within that bank's domain. That's called targeted attack. By the same logic, it wouldn't be hard at all for someone to deploy malitious code in - let's say - the AOL network, that would only target their specific users without harming any others even if it went at large. There's another thing crossing my mind, dunno if I'm right or wrong about this. Few years ago while I was still worrying about infections and did follow antivirus updates, there were regular mentions of obsolete virii, considered 'extinct'. Antivirus producers would remove those signatures from their databases. I now wonder, what would happen if one would release such an ancient virus off of an old floppy, HDD, CD, etc. Hopefully this won't happen, knock on wood, but if it did, many of us 9x users that consider ourselves safe without any firewall/AV protection could potentially suffer major damage. Oh and while I'm here: Rick, would you please send me those rootkit-like file(s) you have, for a test? I'm very curious about their structure (not that I'd understand much anyway, but I'm just very curious and nosy ). Thank you.

Well, you are all right regarding the illegal stuff, however one may need a quick means of distributing perfectly legal stuff (homemade videos/pictures, own scripts/applications, etc) and they do not own a personal web space, neither can they afford a paid one. The nasty part is that some people have static IPs while others (like me, for example) have dynamic IPs. This means the latter cannot put up a stable HTTP/FTP server and share the link, since a disconnection/reconnection would immediately change the IP and the link would die. Of course, for immediate file transfer, one can quickly share files through rejetto's HFS (HTTP File Server), for example, and send the link through instant messaging, e-mail, SMS, etc. But when the recipient may delay the download for an unknown period of time, there's no guaranteee that the file will still be reachable. So the easiest way to distribute material - be it perfectly legal or not - remains the usage of free hosts, for having a stable domain that can be linked to. Personally I had to use such hosts many times - e.g. updates on the WLL project - since my old account at Fateback only allows files of max. 200 kbytes. Nothing black or gray in my project AFAIK, but the lack of stable webspace forced me into using such alternative hosts.

So what you need is some sort of a Task Manager? I've been trying to build one for myself but I'm stuck between showing too many uninteresting services and not showing all running applications (especially those without titlebars, minimized or without visible GUI). Have you tried CodeStuff Starter? It's a longstanding 'friend' of mine.

I'm interested in a similar utility that can actually power off the USB port when the drive is disconnected. I'm not sure what effects could have the intermittent contacts when the device is physically pulled out while still powered on.

I've been having lots of problems with RapidSh.. too, in the past; for some reason (mismatched system files or something), I could not download anything, saying there's already an ongoing download from my address (obviously false). Lately I've been using uploaded.to, however people in different areas reported they couldn't access the site; could be intentionally blocked by certain security software or even ISPs - works fine by me though.

Create a detailed report with Dr.Watson, it will list all loaded files.

Not even once throughout this board have I found the hypothesis that viral attacks might very well be geographically (regionally) targeted based on IP/ISP as well as local codepage and other related data returned by the browsers. I find this to be the best possible explanation for all those controversial reports stating user X in country A using OS version M has never been infected, while user Y in country B using same OS version and same/similar browsing habits has had multiple infections in a short period of time. As to my personal experience, I can't even recall when was it that I first connected to the Internet - it was the 14400 bps dial-up modem era anyway - but ever since I've only used Win95 4.0.950B and later on Win98SE 4.10.2222A until present day. Back in the day, with a 25MHz 486, I had no resources for a software firewall and routers were still unheard of in this area. I've had my share of infections of all types until I've learned how to dodge them, first of all by guessing which file could possibly pose a threat and checking it out. In this regard, Total Commander was a tremendous help - of course, with additional plug-ins installed - since it offered a much better and faster overwiew on file properties and dependencies (using the FileInfo plug-in), especially by having hidden/sytem files visible as well as creation date, extension and size - details that Explorer doesn't show by default. I'm sure there are many useful tools out there but in time I got used to only a bunch of them and they've served me well always. I should mention TweakUI 1.33 which is extremely useful for setting up automated tasks such as cleaning up MRUs (the Paranoia tab), disabling CD/DVD autorun, disabling DOS Scandisk autorun on boot. Then there's CodeStuff Starter, an advanced startup configuration and task manager that quickly allows for an overview and disabling of suspect startup items as well as killing suspect processes (when possible). Spyware Blaster is another great prevention tool, which disables access to known dangerous sites as well as blocking the installation of malware through registry tweaks. As I already mentioned, my hardware never allowed me to run a software firewall and/or a real-time antivirus, which forced me to pay good attention to places I surf and applications I run. In time, I managed to stay well away from infections without using anything else but the aforementioned tools and a great supply of common-sense. Also, there may be 7-8 years or more since I completely disabled Recycle Bin and removed it from the desktop; this brings a great deal of responsability with it but so far I managed to avoid heart-attacks. Oddly enough, apart from a short period of time, long ago, when I've used Netscape, SlimBrowser - which is IE based - has been my only browser and apart from its quite high resource usage lately, has also served me well through years. And as I'm typing this, I'm trying to recall when was the last time I powered off this machine, but I can't - could be a couple months or more and of course, it's always been connected to the Internet, 24/7 (except for reboots, which happen every 3-6 days, depending on spare resources). Need I say I'm running the official version of eMule 24/7 too while building and testing alpha versions of software? For reference, my working machines have been: 486SX/25MHz, 16MB RAM -> 486DX/66MHz, 32MB RAM -> PentiumMMX/200MHz, 64MB RAM -> Pentium III/800MHz, 256MB RAM -> Pentium II/400MHz, 256MB RAM -> Pentium III/700MHz, 256MB RAM currently. Bottom line is, Windows98SE has always been my best friend and will continue to be for as long as possible. Virus-free, spyware-free, worries-free.

They probably used MSI v3.x to create the installer, to make sure Win9x won't ever be able to run it. Without the installer, nobody knows where exactly the files in the cab should go and which registry keys should be created/updated. This has to be deliberated, it's no accident/error/bug. Bottom line is: Sun Java updates for Win9x - whether official or unofficial - are over.

In a few minutes you can build yourself such an application in AutoHotkey. Example of an AHK script that will automatically close the windows whose titles and (partial) text are enumerated: #Persistent SetTimer, CloseWin, 250 return CloseWin: ControlSend, , {Enter}, Shortcut, The new shortcut will be placed on the desktop. ControlSend, , {Tab}, Hard Disk is Full, You have run out of disk space ControlSend, , {Enter}, Hard Disk is Full, You have run out of disk space ControlSend, , {Enter}, Damage Cleanup Engine (DCE), No Virus Found ControlSend, , {Enter}, Security Alert, You are about to be redirected to a connection that is not secure. ControlSend, , {Enter}, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Are you sure you want to log out? ControlSend, , {Enter}, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Are you sure you want to empty this folder? ControlSend, , {Enter}, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Are you sure you want to permanently delete the selected message(s)? ControlSend, , {Enter}, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Are you sure you want to permanently delete the content of the Spam folder? return

I've only read the beginning of the first post in that thread and that's been enough for me. My last registry backup - which is done automatically by scanreg about every day - is a 4,487,924 bytes cabinet containing system.dat (16,228,384 bytes), user.dat (1,937,440 bytes), system.ini (2,833 bytes) and win.ini (10,541 bytes). The system boots just fine (although a bit slow, but not only for this reason). I have TortoiseSVN, Visual C++ 6, Visual Basic 6, MS Platform SDK feb 2003 and Office XP installed among many other applications and I've done enough testing by installing/uninstalling another bunch of applications and drivers, without ever having to restore the OS. Not to mention the HDD, as is, had been directly taken off a broken mobo with different chipset/sound/video and plugged into this rig. The only things I do is completely wipe out Cookies, History, Temp, Temporary Internet Files at boot time (a few lines in autoexec.bat) together with other wise choices in TweakUI regarding Recent Documents in Start menu, cleaning traces, etc. and a registry combing with Registry Medic 3 every few months when I happen to remember about it. Call me lucky. P.S. As I read further into that thread, it reminded me I also have DirectX 9.0c dec2007 updated by soporific, .NET 1.1 and 2.0 installed, which - they say - should write "huge amount of CLSIDs keys". P.P.S. Scanreg optimization is enabled (Optimize=1). Total RAM is 256MB PC133, 4 x 32 GB FAT32 partitions + 1 x 8 GB Linux swap partition (readable under Win9x through a Total Commander plug-in).

I have ACPI enabled on my Soyo SY6-VBA133 and have been running eMule (always the official version) for as long as 6 days in a row and would've let it run longer if it weren't for other applications that leak resources and force me to reboot. From my point of view, eMule is the most stable and well developed application I know, together with Total Commander and I've been following the project for many years too. In this regard - and apologies for the off-topic - I'd be interested to know why can't it be compiled under Win98? I never had the curiosity to check the sources since I just recently got the hang of VC6 while playing with Miranda IM.

The question is not as much "who wants the 9x family out of the picture", but "why"... I have a feeling it's not only about money.

You haven't mentioned if the older, original driver exhibits the same behavior. Also, you haven't mentioned if it also happens with the built-in Windows generic driver (if any). When trying to narrow the issue down, this information is important. After all, it's also possible for the hardware to be defective (loose outlet, broken cable, intermittent contact on mouse PCB, etc).

Try here.

Well, I noticed unfinished shutdown may occur after having application crashes during the current session, probably those directly related to kernel32.dll. But bad drivers, plugged-in USB devices and other factors may contribute to this, so it's hard to pinpoint the issue, especially when it happens due to concurring events.