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Andrew6974

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Everything posted by Andrew6974

  1. Can this threat be mitigated simply by turning off remote desktop ?
  2. Agreed, a different discussion for another time. With regards to my original issue: yes that has been resolved and I am happy that my router / wireless is secure enough. Thanks again to everyone for their input.
  3. I bow down before the great and mighty Google, my corporate overlords
  4. True. But I think the risks are acceptable if you have your network properly secured. Plus it makes sense for someone like me to use Google cloud print to print Google docs from a Google Chromebook (after all the docs are already "in the cloud"). Wow! Listen to me now! This is coming from someone who little over a year ago was adamant that I wouldn't allow myself to become a 'slave to Google' Now I am a complete chromebook convert. I just love the ease and simplicity of it all. All that said though, for more sensitive documents (financial stuff and so on) I use a Windows laptop with an older printer which are not on any network and strictly for offline use only. For everything else though I'm perfectly comfortable using Google docs and cloud printing.
  5. So in other words if I were in range of any 'aspirational' hackers in my local neighbourhood they wouldn't stand much of a chance against a 63 character password with WPA2-PSK [AES] encryption. And trying to crack my network would be more trouble than it's worth to any cyber criminals out there trying to break into someone's wireless network. My router does have an even stronger WPA/WPA2 enterprise level encryption available but I read that this limits wireless speeds to 54 MB. That wouldn't be much good for me on a 154 MB connection.
  6. Yeah I wasn't exactly the most popular member of the family when I handed out the new passphrase, especially when my nephew came to visit at the weekend. Took him about 15 mins to enter it on his ipad. But I figured if I was going to do this I may as well go all the way with it !! As for the characters I used 15 of each group (to make 60) plus threw in three extra special ones, then made sure they were completely randomised. I figured hiding the SSID might just be over doing it a little. I've always kept it as it's default which is the ISP's name followed by seven random numbers. So that doesn't identify me or my home address and I suppose knowing which ISP I'm with (which is the UK's second largest provider) isn't some great secret. In fact most of the street is with Virgin Media ! Thank you once more David for your time and expertise. I'm much obliged to you sir.
  7. Thanks very much for the information David. I knew I was missing something. I had completely forgotten about the online config utility for Epson cloud print. The advanced settings allowed me to enter my new complex password which that little lcd screen wouldn't allow, so I can use Google cloud print and get my google docs printed off without any bother now. Now that has been cleared up could I please ask you if you think the following is a sufficiently secure set-up for an 'average home user' like myself... * Router has strong complex password. * Passphrase is strongest possible (complex 63 characters - maximum allowable on this device). * Encryption is WPA2-PSK [AES] * Router firewall is on. * Remote access (from the internet side) is disabled. * WPS (both PIN and push button) is disabled. The only other thing is I'm not sure whether to hide my SSID or not. My ISP actually recommends it... http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=3673&CURRENT_CMD=SEARCH&CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=National ...but no-one else seems to bother doing it and there are lots of people online that argue that it may make you less secure somehow ?
  8. Hi. Just looking for a small bit of advice regarding my wi-fi network security. We all know by now how insecure it is to use WPS and by default it is turned off on my router. Recently I decided to strengthen the security of my wi-fi by changing my password from the routers default (which was a very weak 8 characters, only numbers and lower case letters) to a more robust 63 character one - a random string of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. That's good right ! All went well updating my devices until it came to my printer - an Epson XP-322. To my horror I found that you cannot input a wireless password with special characters (@#$% and so on) on this printer - it will only accept numbers and letters !! The only way I could reconnect my printer to my router was to temporarily turn on WPS enter a PIN and then turn it off again. Even though WPS is disabled again the router can still recognise the printer as an allowed device which is good because it is essential that I can print documents wirelessly (I have a chromebook and use google cloud print). I only ever turn the printer on when I actually need to print a document. I don’t leave it continuously connected to the wireless network like a lot of people seem to do these days and because WPS is turned off again does this mean I am still safe from this method of hacking or have I opened up a new security vulnerability on my network ?
  9. Sounds like corporate BS to me ! What made me laugh though was this HP guy ends his post with "...I continue to be extremely proud of the company I work for and was particularly proud of our response to this customer’s feedback..." and he links to a video which does not exist... much like satisfied HP customers
  10. I like this guy. Much easier than trying to get through to HP customer support !!
  11. Not sure if this should be in tailwaggers and jokes section because I actually feel for this guy... A man in Colorado Springs became so enraged with his malfunctioning computer that he took it outside and shot it eight times !!! Courtesy of BBC News... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32407688 According to the BBC "computer rage" incidents are on the increase. ...reminds me of the time when I was in college some 15 years ago. I got so enraged with my laptop I threw it down the stairs and then smashed it up with a hammer (my essay did not get held in on time that week). Anyone else have computer rage stories they care to share with the world ?
  12. Speaking of British crime dramas try these... Ripper Street 1889. It's been six months since the last Jack the Ripper killing and East London is emerging into a fragile peace, hopeful that this killer's reign of terror might at last have run its course. Nowhere is this truer than in the corridors of H Division, the police precinct charged with keeping order in the chaos of Whitechapel. Stars Jerome Flynn (from Game Of Thrones). Peaky Blinders (a gangster show set in Birmingham during the aftermath of WW1) starring Cillian Murphy and Sam Neill, and The Fall starring Gillian Anderson (from The X Files) as Superintendent Stella Gibson, a senior police officer investigating a string of murders in Belfast, Northern Ireland. All are worth checking out if that's your thing. Not sure where you can get them in the US though. Here in the UK they are on Netflix / Amazon Prime.
  13. Thanks again daledoc, I think I will follow your advice about not installing optionals in future. As for this diagnostics tracking, well I now have it disabled through msconfig > services so it's not causing me any further problems. I'm a bit worried about uninstalling it because I've learned from past experience that uninstalling updates / services can end up having unforeseen consequences and making things worse. So I don't think I'll tempt fate any further
  14. UPDATE Here it is... KB3022345 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3022345
  15. Hi daledoc1, Unfortunately I can't identify the exact KB that started this whole diagnostics tracking problem, but this is what people are saying about it... http://thepcwhisperer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/microsofts-windows-10-preview-has-built.html ... the more suspicious minded amongst them are referring to it as a built-in keylogger in Windows 10 and I'm sure I read somewhere else that one of the recent updates has activated this feature in previous versions of Windows (I'm using 8.1). Certainly this service started crashing on my machine after installing all of Tuesdays updates (including all the optionals). As it's only function seems to be to collect information about the computer and send it to Microsoft it should be safe to keep the service disabled shouldn't it ?
  16. Hi. After installing what seemed like hundreds of optional windows updates this last "black" tuesday I have started noticing a daily failure of the diagnostics tracking service. I have read on the net that some people are describing it as a kind of keylogger installed / activated by Microsoft itself. Apparently it "enables data collection about functional issues in Windows components" and sends that data back to Microsoft. Anyway, I decided to disable it under msconfig > services to stop these daily service failures. Is it safe for me to keep this service permanently disabled or could it cause any unforeseen system instability / security concerns ? Thanks in advance for any help / advice.
  17. Update - Sorry serta I actually misread your first post and missed the part where you asked me to re-install MBAE (I'm pretty tired this evening ) My bad ! Anyway I did what you said and re-installed MBAE and that sorted out out, so thank you very much for the help.
  18. Hi serta, I appreciate the response but... I have already uninstalled MBAE and it left behind a broken startup entry hence the reason I started this topic. I do have MBAM Premium and self-protection was enabled when MBAE was removed a couple of weeks ago. I won't run any tools or click on any external links unless it's from someone with an appropriate rank on the forum (a Malwarebytes employee, approved helper or mod). I hope you understand my reasons for this. ... thanks anyway.
  19. Hi. I uninstalled MBAE a couple of weeks ago and it left behind some sort of broken startup entry that I can't remove. If I open task manager and go to the startup tab there is a blank icon in the list saying "program" where MBAE used to be. Is there any way to fix this ?
  20. Sorry. Forgot about the other log. I wasn't sure about going to the malware removal forums because I have doubts as to whether it is malware related or not. It could just as easily be related to all the Windows Update problems of late. August's batch of updates definitely messed with my graphics card (as it did with other people). I had to uninstall the bad updates and reset ATI back to factory defaults. Things went quiet again for a few weeks and then my problems started again after installing September's updates last week. It would be helpful to rule out malware though. CheckResults.txt
  21. Hi daledoc. Thank you for replying. I have run farbar and attached the logs. I'm not sure how to locate the windows mini-dumps or stop codes in Windows 8.1 Addition.txt FRST.txt
  22. Hi. I'm in need of a little bit of advice. For the past several days I have been experiencing multiple app failures / freezes. It started a few days after installing September's Windows Updates. The most common app failure seems to be WerFault.exe. This has failed several times and caused a couple of BSODS's. mbam.exe, msfeedsync.exe and firefox.exe have failed as well. In each instance the faulting module is KERNELBASE.dll. I'm not sure as to the cause of all this. Malware or possibly something to do with Windows Update ? I had trouble with the faulty updates Microsoft issued in August's updates as well (caused live kernel events relating to ATI graphics). Those problems went away after I unistalled the affected updates. Should I try a system restore point ?
  23. That's great news exile360. Thanks for the update.
  24. As the issue appears to have been resolved you can go ahead and close this thread now. Thank you.
  25. Hi. Just checking in with this topic to report that I have not experienced any further issues with MBAM in the past three weeks. I have noticed on the forums in recent weeks an increase in people using Windows 8.1 reporting the exact same problem I had. Is this anything to be concerned about ?
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